Courtesy of Sen. Michael Doherty (R-Warren), who proposed that we should shelve our current school funding system, allocate $7,481 per student, regardless of need, and send lots more money to the suburbs. Example from the Star-Ledger story: Clinton Township, part of Doherty’s legislative district, currently receives $583K in state school aid. Doherty’s proposal would net it $11.9 million.
(It’s unclear whether he regards children with special needs (from either disabilities, poverty, new English learners, etc.) as eligible for more that the $7K. [Shout out to Special Education Week!])
Doherty’s, er, logic derives from a section of the State Constitution that says the Legislature is required to allot money to public schools “for the equal benefit of all the people in the State.” The next step, I suppose, is to claim that since the majority of NJ residents are not school children it is to the people’s benefit to not fund school at all.
