Value & Empower Our Public Schools By Locally Funding Them in the 2020 Schools Budget

PS #5 PTA Campaign:
Tell the Board of Education: We need $50 Million Invested in This Year's Budget

The PTA Advocacy Team at Dr. Michael Conti PS #5 School created this "Call to Action" email campaign ahead of the 2020 schools budget season that we can share with the Board of Education and Superintendent Walker. I am sharing on CivicParent to help spread the word & the advocacy.

You can use the automated email below, which will send the note (which you are free to customize). If you don't want to send to all of those individuals at once, simply copy/paste the note below into your email. All the BOE officials' contact information is provided below for your reference.

Advocate in the manner you feel most comfortable!

Value & Empower Our Public Schools By Locally Funding Them in the 2020 Budget
Read or Edit the Petition

To the Elected Officials of the Board of Education, and Superintendent Walker, Many parents, children, residents, and voters have advocated since last year demanding local funding for our schools, and we will continue to do so until our schools are the fully-functioning educational institutions our children deserve. Without proper funding, we just operate under the false illusion of striving for a thorough and efficient education. Our schools do not have a fully funded budget- they have efficiency eliminations - which only starve our kids of the dignity and of the education they deserve. The state is cutting our adjustment aid because our schools are underfunded locally, not because we had too many teachers, counselors, and custodians. The solution was supposed to be an increase in local funding, not having less staff do more work and calling it “right-sizing.” The state has a formula called "SFRA" and it shows that Jersey City can, and should be, funding its own schools. Jersey City has the largest tax base in the entire state, yet shockingly, one of the lowest school tax rates- ranking 532 out of the 565 municipalities. When compared to the top 10 largest municipalities like Newark and Edison, we are still at the bottom, ranking #8. The average school tax rate in the state is 1.4%. Our school tax rate is 0.36%. It is crystal clear that Jersey City does not invest in or value its schools. Enough is enough. Sadly, most of our children in Jersey City public schools have never experienced a day in fully funded school, and every year has been getting worse and worse. Since last year our schools have lost more than 200 positions, including 160 teachers, 25 teacher’s assistants and aids, 20 janitorial, security, and food service staff, 15 administrator and supervisor positions. Additionally, our schools lost all reading recovery teachers, 22 out of 25 literacy coaches, and 19 out of 21 math coaches. Our Crisis Intervention teacher ratios have ballooned from a 1:200 ratio to a shocking 1:400 ratio. Our Counselor ratios have inflated from a 1:250 ratio to a dismal 1:350 ratio. And our kids still don’t have potable drinking water. This chronic and systematic underfunding has not only impacted our classrooms, but the safety and well being of our children. And labeling these positions “luxuries” starkly highlights the breach of your duties to our children. Enough is enough. This BOE must invest in and empower our schools by funding them. A healthy and proper school tax levy is the only sustainable way to fund schools for the long term. As an autonomous governing body, you are the only ones that have authority to raise the school tax levy. You have a fiduciary responsibility as elected trustees to fund our schools. The narrative of “we are not asking for money if we don’t need to ask for money” must stop. As the BOE, you do not need to ask for money, you set up the parameters of our school funding needs. Local funding is not a last resort, but rather the first and most prominent source of school funding. Other funding sources like grants and crowd funding should be utilized to supplement local funding, not in place of local funding. The situation is dire, and the facts are that funding will fix our schools- additional cuts, efficiencies, or right-sizing- will not. Enough is enough. To put us on a path in the right direction, our schools need $50 million added in the next budget cycle to bring back the over 200 positions that were cut, to cover the budget’s inflationary costs, salary increases, and maintaining the needed two percent fund reserve, to create a pilot program to place social workers and psychologists at the schools most heavily impacted by gun violence, to hire more staff, and to develop Superintendent of Schools Franklin Walker’s curriculum. If this BOE wants to run our schools, then you have to fund our schools. You already tried making the “tough decisions” and that only further gutted our district. Now it is time to make the right decisions. We need this BOE to do what you are mandated to do - fund our schools through the local school tax levy. Enough is enough. Sincerely,
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Helpful Tips:

Thank you to the PTA of Dr. Michael Conti PS #5 School for this information & advocacy.

What Should the Email Say:

PS #5 PTA Campaign:
Tell the Board of Education: We need $50 Million Invested in This Year's Budget

Value & Empower Our Public Schools By Locally Funding Them in the 2020 Budget

Board of Education Trustees:

Additional resources about Jersey City's funding crisis

Learn, educate, advocate

NJ Together Details Scale of Underfunding (Click on Photo to Learn More)

Why the School Tax Levy is Key to Funding Our Schools (& why seeking abatement funds isn't a concrete solution)

Jersey City's Public School Funding Crisis - A Civic Overview from NJ Together

Additional insights & analysis from CivicParent:

Brigid D'Souza

Related Posts

Helpful Tips:

Thank you to the PTA of Dr. Michael Conti PS #5 School for this information & advocacy.

What Should the Email Say:

PS #5 PTA Campaign: Tell the Board of Education: We need $50 Million Invested in This Year's Budget

Value & Empower Our Public Schools By Locally Funding Them in the 2020 Budget

Board of Education Trustees:

Additional resources about Jersey City's funding crisis

Learn, educate, advocate

NJ Together Details Scale of Underfunding (Click on Photo to Learn More)

Why the School Tax Levy is Key to Funding Our Schools (& why seeking abatement funds isn't a concrete solution)

Jersey City's Public School Funding Crisis - A Civic Overview from NJ Together

Additional insights & analysis from CivicParent:

Share this:

Brigid D'Souza

Related Posts

PS #5 PTA Campaign:
Tell the Board of Education: We need $50 Million Invested in This Year's Budget