The Opportunity Scholarship Fund is one of the most substantial moves toward school choice ever taken in New Jersey. The bill recently passed through Committee in the Assembly and went through the Senate last summer. The OSA is receiving bipartisan support, and it is becoming increasingly clear that Governor Christie will be signing this bill this year. Senator Tom Kean recently gave an audio address on this important issue. You can listen to the address at Senator Kean’s website, or you can read the transcript below.
Hello. I’m Senator Tom Kean, Jr., and I want to share a few thoughts on an issue near and dear to my heart: education.
Most communities in New Jersey are blessed with great schools, good teachers, and a local school district that prepares children to enter the workforce or go to college.
Sure, everyone can point to something they’d like to see changed in their child’s schools: a new gymnasium, a better foreign language program, new books or computers.
But by and large, New Jersey’s schools produce good outcomes for most students. And the problems that exist in most places, while important, are pretty straightforward and easy to fix.
But in a handful of communities – our state’s poorest and most financially strapped – children and their parents face a different set of circumstances. Despite billions upon billions of dollars spent on education in these districts, too many schools are failing nearly all of their students day in and day out.
The problems that plague these districts can’t be easily solved with a few more dollars or a little more time. Districts like Newark or Camden or Asbury Park are in desperate need of big reforms and big changes that take a lot of time to achieve.
These schools weren’t broken in a day, and they won’t be fixed in a day either. While we must do everything we can to solve the problems in these public schools, it’s going to take a while.
I believe, as do many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, that it is immoral to force children to remain in these chronically failing schools while they wait indefinitely for improvements.
That’s why we’ve proposed the Opportunity Scholarship Act: a program that would allow parents in thirteen of the worst performing districts in New Jersey the choice to immediately send their children to a better performing school, be it public, private or parochial.
This proposal provides immediate help to students that will not receive an adequate education if they remain in their current school district. It ensures that we do not leave children behind while we work to fix the major, systemic, and sometimes societal issues that they face.
In short, this program provides hope to parents and children otherwise faced with impossible odds.
I also want to talk about what this program will not do, because some special interests have been putting a lot of misinformation out there.
Opportunity Scholarships do not impact state school aid for public education. In fact, the program is budget neutral for the state. The program funds scholarships for a limited number of students with tax deductible donations from the private sector.
Public schools that lose a scholarship student will retain a portion of their state aid for the student that is leaving, while benefitting from smaller class sizes for those who remain. As such, these districts will actually receive an increase in per capita aid under our proposal.
The program isn’t some secret plan to funnel state money to private schools, either. Yes, in addition to another public school, scholarship students can choose to attend certain private or parochial schools. The best option for a student and his or her family may be a non-public school that is closer to home. I think that we can all agree that given the circumstances, that’s a reasonable choice to offer.
But most importantly, the Opportunity Scholarship Act is not about taking things away from public education. It is about giving. This program would give more children in failing schools a fighting chance to succeed.
If those kids are given the same opportunities and quality education that most New Jersey children receive, they’re not the only ones who will benefit. We, as a state, will reap the benefits of those children’s successes.
I hope you’ll join me in supporting this very important piece of legislation. I truly believe it represents the last, best hope for thousands of children in the State of New Jersey.
Thanks for listening.
So this is the most substantial move for schools only in New Jersey or the United States?