School Choice Program Vital to West Cape May

WEST CAPE MAY – In 2009 the West Cape May School District faced the potential closing of its elementary school and a merger with either Cape May or Lower Cape May Regional.
Enrollment was at 37 resident students covering kindergarten to sixth grade. No prospect to gain sufficient resident students seemed viable.
At just that time the state was expanding its then-new Interdistrict Public School Choice Program which allows students from outside the district to attend the school funded by additional state allocations.
The Choice Program has been critical to the success of the district’s lone school, allowing enrollments for September 2017 to grow to a projected 103 students.
In that mix, there are 37 resident students, notably the same number as in 2009, 41 state-funded Choice Program students, 17 non-funded Choice Program students, six tuition-paying students and two students of borough staff.
Choice students both funded and unfunded make up 56 percent of the small school’s total enrollment. They give the school the critical mass which Dr. Alfred Savio, chief school administrator/school business administrator, said is important for the socialization mission that is an important part of the educational program.
Savio gave a presentation on the Choice Program at a meeting of Borough Commissioners Aug. 23.
What prompted the presentation was the concern on the part of some in public over the 17 non-funded students. As one resident asked, “Who pays for them?”
School Choice Program
To understand the answer, one needs context on the Choice Program.
The program was introduced shortly after Gov. Chris Christie took office. It allows the parents of students outside of their resident school district to apply for acceptance into the program. Upon approval, they send their children to the public school of their choice.
Elsewhere in the nation school choice is a concept that embraces some different policies including the use of vouchers for taxpayer funding of students at private or religious schools. That is not the case in New Jersey.
Across the state, about 129 school districts have elected to join the Choice Program. A number of those schools, like West Cape May Elementary, are small districts looking to use small class size and greater individual attention for students as a lure to maintain a necessary critical mass.
State aid for Choice Program students is greater than the normal per-pupil state funding for resident students, helping to make up for the property tax revenue left behind in the school district the student left. The increased aid makes the program very attractive to small districts.
The problem with this was the introduction of a cap in state funding for the program in 2014-2015.
The program’s popularity outgrew the state allocation. The response was a cap on the number of Choice students any district is allowed to have and for which they will receive extra funding.
The West Cape May District has a cap of 32.
How can they have 41 funded positions, as Savio stated, for this coming year?
Complications in the calculation of the cap arise due to special waivers or dispensations that follow rules about siblings of current Choice students. The policy exception is meant to keep children in the same family together. It can result in temporary additional slots that will be funded.
Unfunded Pupils
What is this category of Choice students who are not funded? According to the state Department of Education, they are not technically Choice students. The state definition is that they are non-funded, non-district, non-tuition students and they carry no state funding of any sort if they are outside their resident district.
Still, 17 have been “accepted” as unfunded Choice students by the school district.
A full understanding of how this occurred is not entirely clear as Savio tried to respond to that question.
There was an issue of how students were coded in two different state systems. There was, he added, a conscious decision of the board of education to accept the students.
However it happened, the students received letters accepting them into the program. The cap, which they exceed, will prevent the school from getting the funding.
The state is conducting an audit of four years of the program at West Cape May. Who is and who is not a funded Choice student may be clearer at the end of the process.
Bottom line is that there are 17 students expected to be in the school’s classrooms in September who carry no state aid and do not pay tuition.
Savio said two of the students were moving into the district by September which reduces the number to 15.
So Who Pays?
The Choice Program is so important to small districts that West Cape May and Springfield Township, Burlington County have partnered in litigation to challenge the state-imposed cap.
The court ruled that the Commissioner of Education acted within the context of legislative intent by restricting the program to enrollment that matches funding in state budgets, so the cap stayed.
Does that mean borough taxpayers are paying for the unfunded students? Savio said no.
He argued that the extra students impose no extra cost for salaries, benefits, facilities or any of the other big-ticket items in the budget. “The budget would be the same even if these students did not attend,” he said.
Savio admits that some marginal costs do increase, more textbooks, for example. Those costs, he said, make no difference in the district’s overall $1.8-million budget.
Resolved?
Is the issue resolved? Probably not. There are still those on the board and in the public who think the unfunded student number needs to be reduced.
The audit will play itself out. The cap number and exceptions will be clearer. Policy decisions will eventually be made.
“We have a great product here,” Savio said more than once, citing strong assessment scores.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.