State must make fair investment in charter schools

Last June marked one of my greatest personal moments in the last 10 years, when I took part in my older daughter's eighth-grade graduation ceremony. It doesn't happen often, but I was completely overcome with gratitude and with pride in the person that her school has helped her to become.

My daughter graduated from Greater Brunswick Charter School where I am a trustee. As one of the state's premier charter schools, Greater Brunswick has provided many more students than just my daughter with positive educational experiences. It has given hundreds of children their first thoughtful steps on a lifelong journey of learning, and it has empowered them to be productive members of whatever society they choose to live in.

Despite the difference our school has made to hundreds of students since its inception 10 years ago, its mission has become steadily more difficult to fulfill. Charter schools throughout our state face serious challenges to their long-term survival due to the inequities in charter school funding.

Under the New Jersey Charter School Program Act of 1996, charter schools are supposed to receive 90 percent of the per-pupil spending of the sending school district. If only that were the case.

At Greater Brunswick - where about three-quarters of our students live in New Brunswick - we receive only 50 percent of the per-pupil amount spent in the New Brunswick School District. The 2005-06 school report card lists our per-pupil spending at $6,102, compared to the $12,203 that New Brunswick spent on each of its students that year.

Under Abbott funding regulations, Greater Brunswick receives some Abbott kindergarten aid - but only for kindergarten. Under those same regulations, we do not qualify as an Abbott district - even though the school is located in an Abbott district and even though half our students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

The state's proposed budget promises increased funding for non-Abbott districts with large numbers of poor students - the exact status of Greater Brunswick - but we have been told we are ineligible, because we are located in an Abbott district. That makes no sense. How can we be excluded from both Abbott and non-Abbott aid?

How many sides of the coin can there be? Either we qualify as an Abbott school because of our location and should receive Abbott aid, or we're not an Abbott school and therefore are entitled to the new at-risk aid if our student population meets the criteria.

We all talk about the "funding following the child," but it's just not happening. I do not understand why it isn't happening, and my fellow parents do not understand why it isn't happening. Why do our children end up with less? Where is it stated that this is the price we pay for exercising our right of school choice?

My family bought a home in New Brunswick primarily because of Greater Brunswick Charter School. In 1998 - with one daughter entering first grade and a second child on the way - I knew nothing of the Charter School Act or of school choice. All I knew was that I wanted to give my children the best possible chance to make the best of what is inside them, and to explore and learn to take part in the world around them.

As the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee finishes its work on the 2008 state fiscal budget, its members must give all the students in New Jersey's public school system the best chance at success, by providing qualifying charter schools with either the Abbott aid or the newly allocated "at-risk" aid. If New Jersey is to continue to attract progressive and productive families to raise their children here, we must make a much greater investment in improving all of our public schools.

Carla Haynes Siglam

New Brunswick