Data and thoughts on public and private school funding in the U.S.
The current version of the New Jersey Opportunity Scholarship Act would pilot the tuition tax credits for private schooling in the following locations: Asbury Park City School District Camden City School District Elizabeth City School District Lakewood City School District Newark City School District City of Orange School District Passaic City School District, and City … Continue reading Revisiting NJOSA & the Lakewood Effect
UPDATE: As I understand it, NJOSA has now been revised to specifically target Lakewood as a pilot site for the vouchers (1 of 8 locations). Consider the analysis below in that light. This revision potentially allows for a greater share of overall NJOSA funding to flow specifically to Lakewood students. Further, this revision raises fun/interesting … Continue reading NJOSA & the Lakewood Effect
Tuition tax credit programs establish privately governed entities that provide scholarships, typically to “lower income” families, for their children to attend private schools. The idea is to provide tax credits to corporations and individuals who give money to these tuition scholarship entities. The compelling governmental interest for these policies, as we often hear is that … Continue reading Will Kiryas Joel Finally Get its Way? Who really benefits from NY’s “Invest in Ed” Tax Credit?
Taxpayer outrage arguments are in style these days (as if they ever really go out of style). Two particular taxpayer outrage arguments that have existed for some time seem to be making a bit of resurgence of late. Or, at least I think I’ve been seeing these arguments a bit more lately in the blogosphere … Continue reading A comment on the “I pay your salary” and “I pay twice for schools” arguments
In light of recent controversy over the role of state appointed “emergency” managers in Michigan, I’ve been pondering the state of taxpayer rights under the current education policy agenda(s) in New Jersey. For example: The state of New Jersey seems determined to maintain its control over Newark Public Schools, which, in effect, at least partially … Continue reading Taxpayer rights under New Jersey’s current Education Policy Agenda
A while back, when the NJ Opportunity Scholarship Act was a hotter topic, I wrote a post explaining how, depending on which districts were included in NJOSA and depending on how family income qualifications were set and eligibility for those already enrolled in private schools, the largest share of scholarships could actually end up going … Continue reading Mapping the Potential Distribution of NJ Opportunity Scholarships
The commission on private schools established by former Governor Corzine has just released its report: http://nj.gov/governor/news/reports/pdf/20100720_np_schools.pdf This report is more fun than many recent reports in New Jersey because it actually has some data and citations. Nonetheless, I have at least a few concerns regarding the presentation of the data and implications drawn from it. … Continue reading Private Schools & Public Education Policy in New Jersey
It’s kind of like an end of semester blogging time here – a good time to review various posts on specific topics related to New Jersey education policy. My apologies to those of you looking for issues of national/broader interest. I’ll get back to those issues after this post. In this post, I provide a … Continue reading New Jersey Opportunity Scholarship (NJOSA) Study Notes & Review
School Finance 101 