FACT SHEET ON
NONPUBLIC SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION
GOAL: TO REMOVE THE
“NOTWITHSTANDING LANGUAGE” AFFECTING NONPUBLIC SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION FROM THE
FY’07 STATE BUDGET
The following points should be helpful to you in discussing the nonpublic school transportation issue with legislators, particularly with those on the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee and the Assembly Budget Committee:
Nonpublic school transportation is the ‘life
blood” of parents’ ability to
send their children to a nonpublic school.
Transporting nonpublic school children to school
has been New Jersey law since
1968, but the Legislature never intended that 41.7% of the students (the 2005-
2006 school year figure) would be given aid-in-lieu payments instead of
transportation.
Nonpublic school transportation will always cost
more than public school
transportation because it involves fewer students traveling more miles.
We are still feeling the effects of the
extensive freeze on the ceiling for nonpublic
school transportation during the last decade. Since FY’91, the ceiling for
nonpublic school transportation has not kept pace with inflation.
Nonpublic school parents are helpless because
the vast majority of nonpublic
school students are transported by private bus contractors because districts
have no more available busses. The Legislature has been unable to cap costs on
these routes, and thus more and more nonpublic school routes get cancelled
as a result of bids exceeding the ceiling for nonpublic school transportation.
When a nonpublic school route is cancelled, a
significant number of the students
on that route are forced to transfer to a public school, against the better judgment
of their parents. Parents are simply unable to transport their children to school, no
matter
what the aid-of-lieu payments may be. The taxpayers of
become responsible for educating the children in public schools.
NO ELIGIBLE PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILD WILL BE DENIED A
RIDE TO
SCHOOL DURING THE 2006-2007 SCHOOL YEAR BECAUSE OF AN
IMPOSED CEILING ON THE COST OF THE RIDE. THEREFORE, THE
INCREASE IN THE PRICE OF GASOLINE WILL HAVE NO EFFECT ON
THESE STUDENTS.
A 4.04% increase (commensurate with the change
in the Consumer Price
Index (or CPI) is needed this year because of the increase in fuel costs which
will double or triple that amount.
No amount of money is needed to be added to the
Budget initially to cover this
increase. There is already $307,287,000 in state aid available. There may or may
not be an additional $2.8-3M needed later in the budget year, depending on the
total state aid numbers and how many routes are actually bid to the maximum of
the new ceiling. The maximum amount would only be necessary in instances where
all of the eligible nonpublic school students (95,036 according to last year’s figure)
had their routes bid to the maximum amount.
This small increase will continue to provide
safe rides to school for many
nonpublic school students, and it is indeed a modest amount in the context
of a $30.9B State Budget.
Nonpublic school officials and parents have
made, and will continue to make,
every effort to accommodate the needs of district transportation coordinators,
officials of coordinated transportation services agencies, and school bus
contractors by changing the opening and closing times of schools to
permit the “looping” of busses.
Nonpublic school officials and parents have also
devised creative ways to make
bus routes operate within the statutory ceiling by using centralized stops with
more children available at each stop, in order to reduce the amount of time
needed to operate a route. HOWEVER, THESE CREATIVE SOLUTIONS
CAN ONLY HELP FOR SO LONG WITHOUT ADDITIONAL FUNDING.
Nonpublic school students also ride on busses
with public school students in
order to create greater efficiency.
Under the provisions of NJSA 18A: 39.3, districts may renew contracts for
routes for the transportation of students as long as the increase in the
original contract price does not exceed the rise in the Consumer Price
Index. However, the notwithstanding language in the FY’07 Budget
prohibits the rise in the CPI from being applied to the ceiling for
nonpublic school transportation (another case in which discrimination
occurs for nonpublic school students). Thus, the intended effects of the
provisions of NJSA 18A: 39.3 are negated by the current budget language,
and public school students will not be denied a ride to school, while nonpublic
school children will.
The “notwithstanding language” reverses the
provisions of NJSA 18A: 39-1A,
signed into law on January 10, 2002, to provide the CPI increase to nonpublic
transportation. The bill received wide bipartisan support during it passage.