NJ Education Report

The Star-Ledger Editorial Board weighs in today on New Jersey’s inability to provide free preschool to poor kids who don’t live in Abbott districts:

One of the governor’s own top priorities — expanding free preschool to more school districts — now moves to the “maybe someday” list. It may end up on the list of things state government just can’t afford to provide.

That’s true. We can’t afford to provide the educational services available in Abbott districts to equally poor kids who live elsewhere. This hard reality decimates the new School Funding Formula, which is supposed to provide equity by distributing school aid based on personal income, not zip code. The Ledger suggests that the answer lies in “severely slash(ing) the aid that props up local government,” i.e., “more sharing services, less spreading taxpayer money around to campaign contributors.”

That’s a tepid drop in the bucket, guys. We need a major overhaul of our educational infrastructure, buy-in from NJEA, expansion of charter schools, and meaningful leadership from the D.O.E. Anything else is like relying on a rain dance to reverse a drought.