Sponsored by:
Assemblyman WAYNE P. DEANGELO
District 14 (Mercer and Middlesex)
Assemblyman ERIC HOUGHTALING
District 11 (Monmouth)
Assemblywoman JOANN DOWNEY
District 11 (Monmouth)
SYNOPSIS
Creates financial rewards program in DOE for districts with high academic performance and low per pupil expenditures.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act establishing a rewards program for high performing, efficient school districts and supplementing P.L.2007, c.260 (C.18A:7F-43 et al.).
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. As used in this act:
“Efficient education expenditures” means that, according to the Department of Education’s Taxpayer’s Guide to Education Spending, the school district’s budgetary cost per pupil for the most recent school year for which audited expenditure data are available, is within the lowest quartile among all districts in its comparison group, as categorized by enrollment, in the guide.
“High student academic achievement” means that, among all students in the school district to whom a State assessment was administered in the most recent year for which results are available, at least 60% of the students scored in the “approaching expectations,” “meeting expectations,” or “exceeding expectations” ranges in each of the English language arts and mathematics subject areas.
2. a. There is hereby established in the Department of Education the Academic Achievement and Efficiency Rewards Program. The purpose of the program shall be to provide rewards to school districts that meet criteria for attaining success towards high student academic achievement while having efficient education expenditures. A school district that operates grades kindergarten through 12 and meets the criteria for high student academic achievement and efficient education expenditures shall receive, in addition to any aid received pursuant to the provisions of P.L.2007, c.260 (C.18A:7F-43 et al.) or any other law, an amount equal to $250 multiplied by the district’s projected resident enrollment for the budget year.
b. Any aid received pursuant to this section shall not be included in the calculation of a school district’s stabilized aid pursuant to section 5 of P.L.2007, c.260 (C.18A:7F-47).
3. This act shall take effect immediately and shall first be applicable to the first full school year following the date of enactment.
STATEMENT
This bill establishes the Academic Achievement and Efficiency Rewards Program in the Department of Education. Under the program, a school district that operates grades kindergarten through 12 will receive, in addition to any aid received under the “School Funding Reform Act of 2008,” or any other law, $250 per resident student. A district would receive the reward if: 1) at least 60% of its students who took a State assessment scored in the “approaching expectations,” “meeting expectations,” or “exceeding expectations” ranges in each of the English language arts and mathematics subject areas; and 2) the district’s budgetary cost per pupil, as measured in the Taxpayers’ Guide to Education Spending (formerly the Comparative Spending Guide) is among the lowest 25% of all school districts in the same enrollment grouping used in the guide.