Associated Press
TRENTON — An education advocacy group on Monday urged New Jersey lawmakers to reject Gov. Chris Christie’s schools budget for the coming year, claiming that it changes the formula for funding public education without prior legislative approval and in ways that will shortchange districts with the largest percentages of poor and non-English-speaking students.
The Education Law Center claims the governor’s budget for K-12 aid as presented to the Legislature is illegal.
The center, a leading public education advocate that has challenged the Christie administration previously, released its latest budget analysis Monday, about two weeks after sending it to leaders of the budget committees in the Senate and Assembly.
“The governor’s FY13 school aid proposal should be rejected as an unauthorized and legally improper incursion by the Executive upon the other branches of government, in defiance of clear legislative and judicial mandates,” the center’s executive director, David Sciarra, wrote to legislative leaders.
Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Vincent Prieto told The Associated Press the analysis is being reviewed. He said Democrats remain concerned that the governor is trying to change the school funding formula adopted in 2008 rather than fully finance it.
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