Jerry Cantrell has this post on NJE3.com:
Whatever your feeling on the latest round of judicial intervention in New Jersey’s urban public-school-funding soap opera, one thing is clear: The state Supreme Court intends to continue its override of the Legislature’s decisions on school funding . . .
To wit, Newark Superintendent Clifford Janey recently revealed that 96 percent of Newark graduates who went to Essex County College needed re mediation, and only 20 percent ever received an associate’s degree. Certainly, $20,482 per student (more if we include teacher pension costs) should buy more for our students . . .
The second is that they [the state Supreme Court] continue to fuel the class war around Abbott funding while undermining the Legislature’s ability to manage the growth of the most expensive sector of government-public education, where roughly two-thirds of all state aid is distributed. Bar none, it is — via construction costs in ex cess of $90,000 per student, average teacher salaries of almost $60,000 increasing at near twice the rate of inflation, and stunning pension and health-care commitments — the cost-driver in the state. To the extent this expense is not managed as revenues decrease, the situation becomes all the more dire . . .
