Schools
BOE Votes to Oppose Opportunity Scholarship Act
Proposed state program would provide students private school vouchers from public funds.
The Bloomfield Board of Education (BOE) approved a resolution opposing the , a proposed state program that would provide students private school vouchers from public funds.
Eight board members approved the measure Tuesday night with one, Shane Berger, abstaining to vote on the program, which would take $360 to $1 billion from public sources and give it to private schools, according to town officials.
“Our job is to protect public schools. It depletes the general fund,” said board member Mary Shaughnessy, who hoped the vote to state legislators.
But Berger said while he supports public education and the town’s teachers, he didn’t think it was right to interfere with other town affairs because the proposed program specifically targets 13 school districts with at least one chronically underperforming school.
“I don’t think passing a resolution on other districts’ needs (is) important,” Berger said. “I believe in home rule. I support our teachers. I don’t think it (resolution) works here.”
The program, a five-year pilot, would give corporations tax credits for donating to OSA, which would issue vouchers or “scholarships” to students to leave failing schools and attend any public or private school of their choosing.
The program also reserves 25 percent of the funds for students already enrolled in private schools, town officials said. Funds provided to public schools are already tight, they said, and the program also doesn’t “address the needs of those students in targeted districts who do not participate in the program,” according to the BOE resolution.
The vote was done the same day Gov. Chris Christie gave his where he vowed to increase school aid while also cutting expenses and taxes.
Interim Superintendent Catherine Mozak said the school district won’t know how much money they will receive from the state until this Thursday when full details are released.
Meanwhile, the school district is looking at alternate sources of revenue and areas to cut expense, she said. They include conserving energy, streamline transportation, and relocate special education programs.
Here’s what else you may have missed from last night’s meeting:
- The board will hold a special meeting to present a tentative school board budget on Tuesday, March 1 at 7 p.m., said Mozak. The meeting will be held on the second floor of the school administration building (155 Broad St.).
- The board passed a resolution awarding an energy commodity contract to LD Energy based in Rochelle Park for 2012 to 2014. The contract would have the district save 15 percent on energy expenses and caps “unseasonal demand fluctuations” up to 20 percent, according to the resolution.
- Several board members chided Lopez for his which appeared on Bloomfield Patch last week, about negotiations between the school district and teachers on salary increases. Shaughnessy said Lopez should have said he was writing as a resident, and that the views in the letter did not reflect the official opinion of the board. Lopez said he stood by his comments, which he viewed as a public document because he read it out loud at the Feb. 8 BOE meeting at Watsessing Elementary.
