A cesspool of insatiable greed, blatant disregard for taxpayer funds, bleak academic outcomes, and a state legislature that sits on its hands.
By Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia
Audacity must be on sale this week, because Newark Public Schools’ latest scheme just hit the market.
Newark is advancing a plan to lease a former Catholic school building that will cost taxpayers nearly $500 million over time. That is half a billion dollars for a lease, exceeding the cost of constructing the most expensive school ever built by the state; Perth Amboy High School cost about $284 million to build. Newark is proposing to spend far more than that without even owning the building.
This isn’t an isolated decision, but part of an expensive, disturbing pattern.
In 2023, Newark, with state backing, paid $15.5 million for a building appraised at $8.5 million, located in an area that had plenty of classroom space with a 7 to 1 student-to-teacher ratio. There were already empty seats while other schools remained overcrowded. This wasn’t a space problem. It’s an epic planning failure.
Academic outcomes reflect that same disconnect. Only one in four students can do math at grade level, and just one in three can read at grade level, both well below the state average despite the level of spending.
Newark receives roughly $1.2 billion in state aid annually, funded by taxpayers across New Jersey, while local taxpayers cover only a much smaller portion of the district’s budget. On top of that, the district received hundreds of millions in federal COVID relief dollars that were supposed to address learning loss, yet less than 1 in 5 Newark students who were supposed to receive extra support actually got it. At the same time, the district paid over a million dollars to a “learning consultant” with limited experience who later admitted she didn’t do the work, but still cashed in.
After decades of academic failure, financial mismanagement, and governance breakdown, the Newark school district was placed under state control from the mid-1990s until regaining full local control in 2020. The state had oversight and authority during that time. When the Newark school district regained control, they didn’t ease into it. Old habits die hard; after years in the penalty box, they came out running the same money-to-burn playbook.
The state has already confirmed misuse of funds when Newark was forced to repay state taxpayer dollars that were used for the superintendent’s “Fun Day”, complete with open bar and no academic value. This repayment was only required following public outrage that included demands by Assemblyman Alex Sauickie and Senate Minority Budget Officer Declan O’Scanlon. Meanwhile, nearly a quarter of a million dollars was spent on helium balloons, millions went to catering, and more than $1 million was spent on travel, including “professional development” trips for board members and administrators to balmy locations including Hawaii, complete with caviar and Wagyu beef, none of which improves student learning.
Bizarre leadership decisions follow. The superintendent’s contract initially failed, then weeks later in the 11th hour a board member changed her vote from an abstention to a yes, pushing the extension through with next to no public input and without proper reconsideration. Experts called the move improper, a sitting board member said it “reeks of impropriety,” and the board member who flipped her vote described weeks of pressure leading up to that decision. In that same environment, gag orders are effectively placed on board members, restricting them from speaking freely while major, inexplicable decisions move forward.
So what responsibility do the legislature and state agencies bear?
The state controlled the Newark school district for 25 years. It currently sets the funding formula, sends over a billion dollars in taxpayer funds from across New Jersey, and signs off on major projects through the Schools Development Authority (SDA). When buildings are located where they aren’t needed, costs balloon, and money is spent without results, that failure is a betrayal to every student and every taxpayer across the state. School districts in the rural Highlands, in shore communities, and across the suburbs are pushed to the brink. There are mass teacher layoffs, class sizes swell above thirty students, and districts cut class offerings and sports, gutted by a crippling funding formula, while the SDA writes blank checks and Newark treats taxpayer dollars like a slush fund for adults behaving badly.
And that makes the silence from Trenton impossible to ignore.
As Chair of the Senate Education Committee Senator Vin Gopal’s latest initiative is a push for consolidation of school districts, which raises an obvious question about consistency. When Newark spent double the price in millions for a new school in an area already flush with empty seats, there was no legislative push for consolidation. That same absence exists today.
Gopal was also a prominent player in Mikie Sherrill’s gubernatorial campaign and, following the Democrat primary election, Newark became a focal point of political alignment. Our newly-elected governor made the unusual decision to take her oath of office not in Trenton, but in Newark. During that same period, the state advanced a $300 million public subsidy tied to the Newark Prudential Center, legislation supported by Sherrill despite her criticism of politically-connected “pork” spending.
And despite a reported decline in enrollment of 818 students, Newark Public Schools is slated to receive an additional $60.5 million in state funding, meaning more money is flowing into a system that serves fewer students, has a history of absurd spending decisions, and has shown limited-to-no improvement whatsoever in student outcomes.
This begs the question: what political forces are at play that allow this level of spending, this level of misallocation, and this level of disregard for outcomes to continue in Newark Public Schools?
Our schools are meant to educate children, not bamboozle families, undermine students’ futures, and obliterate the taxpayers.
Republicans can hammer this all day long. Nothing is changing. The responsibility now falls to the public to hold their legislators and the governor accountable for what has become a sustained failure of responsibility to the students, families, and teachers in Newark. Those kids deserve better. Taxpayer dollars belong in the classroom supporting instruction, not wasted on whatever this circus is.
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Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia represents the 24th Legislative District which encompasses all of Sussex County and parts of Morris and Warren Counties. She is a member of the Assembly Education Committee and is a professional educator.
