New Jersey's Totally Screwed Up Charter School System, Clifton Edition
Here we go again:
And so it continues with New Jersey's insane charter authorizing system: Trenton mandates a school district must give up funds to support a charter school that the district had no say in approving. Worse, the district cannot exercise any oversight authority over the charter: iLearn can spend the funding the state mandates the district provide any way they wish, so long as NJDOE approves.CLIFTON — City school board members remain united in opposition to the state education department's mandate that the district allocate $2 million toward a controversial charter school group.The state Department of Education issued a directive to the Clifton school board late in the budgetary process, said Clifton school officials.The directive calls for the funding of 225 students set to attend Passaic Arts and Science Charter schools, including a new building opening this fall on Clifton Avenue. The school formerly housed the Sacred Heart Elementary School.The PASC is affiliated with the ILearn LLC Network, which is the subject of investigations due to allegations of fraud.Business administrator Edward Appleton said the school system learned of the major increase the final week in February. The state’s directive created a spike in the board’s imposed charter school tuition from $2.69 million in the 2016-2017 budget to $4.68 million for next year, he said. [emphasis mine]
It's worth pointing out that, according to data from the Education Law Center, Clifton has suffered from persistent underfunding of state education aid under the Christie Jersey Jazzman: New Jersey's Totally Screwed Up Charter School System, Clifton Edition:
