Parents of children K-8 expressed dismay at the announcement that the local Franklin Lakes School Board will be cutting up to eight teachers and 3 administrative support staff in the coming year. Many voiced concern at the recent Board of Ed meeting, showing support for some of the affected teachers and surprise that the recently passed school budget would not save the positions. Parents had worked to assure that this year’s budget did not go down in defeat as the previous year’s, but apparently many were unaware the 2008-09 approved budget had incorporated layoffs.
Wyckoff’s K-8 Board of Ed faced concerns of a similar nature at the announcement that the school’s janitorial services would be out-sourced. The Board of Ed for the K-8, like all districts, must keep increases to no more than 4%. This can have a rippling affect if budgets are repeatedly defeated and the percentage of increase allowed proportionally goes down. Franklin Lakes was the only town in the FLOW area to vote down the K-8 school budget last year, and the worsening economic situation could easily have led to a repeat defeat.
It was only a couple of years ago when national studies were making the case that the country was lacking in teachers. Along with the healthcare industry, it was assumed that the teaching profession would remain recession proof. A short time later the nation is facing layoffs of tens of thousands of teachers across the country. It is believed by many that these layoffs would have numbered in the hundreds of thousands had it not been for the recently passed stimulus package that included specific funding for education.
Franklin Lakes offers a student-to-teacher ratio similar to surrounding towns in the Bergen County area. The ratio fluctuates in different grade levels as it does in all towns such as Ramsey, Wyckoff, Oakland, and Tenafly. Franklin Lakes spends in total approximately fifteen and a half thousand dollars per pupil, Ramsey and Tenafly spend about one thousand less, with Oakland and Wyckoff spending about two thousand less. Franklin Lakes’ demographics also result in less state aid with local revenue required to make up that difference.
The Paterson school district spends approximately seventeen thousand dollars per pupil and Passaic City spends over sixteen thousand. This discrepancy has fueled local candidates for the state assembly to call for reform. Some districts fund well over 80% of the school budget through local revenue, while poorer neighborhoods like Paterson receive well over 80% from the state. The New Jersey Constitution requires the state to provide an education; but, as Franklin Lakes already has a higher per-pupil-cost than most districts, many residents resent subsidizing other school districts that actually spend more than they do.
Towns such as Wyckoff and Ramsey are in a similar situation to Franklin Lakes with respect to funding up to 88% of the school budget through local revenue. Oakland spends proportionally more local revenue on school funding than most towns in the Bergen County area with estimates hovering slightly over 90%. On a side note, Alpine, NJ, with only one elementary school in its K-8 district funds almost 90% of their school budget with local funds, spending about twenty-five thousand dollars per pupil.
