Jersey City Together’s Youth & Education Team has engaged more than 200 parents at 5 elementary schools across the district in the last few weeks. We are listening for common ground across schools in every neighborhood of the city. Leaders are now conducting research meetings. Stay tuned over the next few weeks as we prepare for next steps.

“On May 1st, Jersey City Together held a press conference to demand the Jersey City Board of Education use its full “banked cap” to fund our schools. This would add $5.3 million to the schools’ budget at a time when they are $100 million underfunded every year ($3,250 per student). On May 7th, the Jersey City Board of Education passed their 2018-2019 budget including the full banked cap as part of it. They credited Jersey City Together’s research & organizing with making this happen and with bringing the “banked cap” to their attention.”

Dozens of parents, teachers and staff, and community advocates spoke at a City Council meeting to support passage of the payroll tax to help fund the school. Click here to learn more.

As expected, in March 2019 Governor Murphy released his proposed fiscal year (FY) 2019/20 budget for NJ and it included a re-allocation of state education aid away from Jersey City. The impact to Jersey City was both expected and sobering: a $27 million cut in “Adjustment Aid”, a type of excess state aid that Jersey City has been receiving for the last 10 years to make up for anemically low local revenues.

For context:

I wrote about these expected cuts in previous posts here.

I wrote a bit about the school tax levy in this post earlier today.

I recently updated my “Property Tax Dashboard” to include 2018 data here; this shows the school tax levy for every city in NJ, thus gives a sense of how much (or how little) a town or city is supporting its public schools with local property taxes.

In March 2019, Jersey City Together advocates taught the funding crisis at First Wesleyan Church in front of 210+ parent, student, and faith leaders. Interim Superintendent Franklin Walker & School Board President Sudhan Thomas were also present. Parents and students shared their concerns about the conditions of our schools and the impact of underfunding that is impacting students today. We taught the scale of the underfunding crisis in our schools — $100 million underfunded today, $150 million more about to be lost, and potentially a $120 million deficit in next year’s budget. Watch the event here. The team named Mayor Fulop’s commitment from December 2018 to help fund the schools.

As a direct result to the underfunded school levy passed by the Board of Education, teacher layoffs ensued. While Jersey City Together advocates had been warning of just such an outcome, many in community were caught by surprise, resulting in a fierce reaction.  “More than 300 parents, teachers and students crowded inside School 26 on Monday night to demand Jersey City school board members find a way to avoid massive cuts to school staffing and educational programs.” Read more here.

Jersey City Together leaders Brigid D’Souza, Dr. Jyl Josephson, & Rev. Dr. Alonzo Perry Sr wrote an op-ed criticizing the failure to fund the schools with the local school levy. “Over the last nine months, Jersey City Together leaders have listened to hundreds of parents, teachers, and students about the issues facing our schools. The stories we heard – increasing class sizes, program cuts, non-compliance for students with special needs, lack of water – are mostly stories of underfunding.” Read more here.

“After a series of actions at Jersey City Municipal Council meetings led by Jersey City Together & parent leaders, including one with more than 100+ parents, the Jersey City Municipal Council decided not to include funding for Jersey City Public Schools as part of their budget.” Learn more here.

JCT education team members planned a proactive, organized effort in 2020, in anticipation of more state aid cuts that we knew would be released in March 2020 (when state aid numbers are released by the governor’s office),  This post illustrates a look ahead at the known budget season and shows what advocates had their eyes on: the facts, the likely movement of state aid and needed school levy push, and a key message for all interested stakeholders: It’s never too late to get involved. 

The Education team created a school tax expense calculator to help Jersey City residents understand the personal investment for a $50 million increase to the school levy.  The team’s aim was to the put the power of understanding property taxes into taxpayers’ hands.  This tool allows a user to input the assessed value of a home and then view the computed, personalized estimate for the change in monthly and annual school tax. Learn more here.

Organizing can require pressuring collaboration among multiple government agencies to effectuate needed change. The water advocacy is a great example, as the Board of Education (BOE) and Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA) need constant pressure to act. Learn more about “Phase II” work on water fountain upgrades in JCPS, which would include Public Schools 4, 25, 38, and 39.

For another year, Jersey City Together supported the passage of a “fully funded budget” in the face of devastating state aid cuts that have been in motion since 2018.

The local news reported…”With a 6-3 vote the Jersey City Board of Education has adopted its final $814.1 million budget for the 2021-2022 academic year…According to Superintendent of the Jersey City Public School District Franklin Walker, this year the district lost about $152 million in state aid and over the next three years the district is projected to lose another $250 million…“Our focus is how to best meet the needs of the children,” said Walker. “The district still lacks revenue and budget stability, which adds fiscal uncertainty when added to the pandemic impact and that 80 percent of our students are economically disadvantaged. Our only option to secure the necessary funding to submit a balanced budget that meets the students’ needs is a tax levy.””

Learn more here.

JC Together’s education team demanded that the water remediation project to rid the schools’ drinking water of lead be completed by the end of 2021. The city MUA, however, said it was not possible until late 2022. This advocacy sheds light on the need for proactively demanding solutions and commitments from government authorities. Learn more here.

Jersey City Together’s education team supported the passage of a fully funded budget in the face of continued state aid cuts. Absent the local school levy investment, the schools could have faced layoffs in the face of continued retractions of state aid. Between 2018 and 2022, the city has lost $200+ million in state aid. Learn more here.