RIS Teacher Proposes State School Funding Ideas to BOE

A Roosevelt Intermediate School teacher told the Board of Education on Tuesday that it is now time to start discussing changes in the state's education funding formula.

Dennis McMorrow, a language arts teacher at RIS, addressed the BOE during public comments about the proposed budget cuts to outline his thoughts on the state aid situation. As part of his proposal, he suggested that the state could develop a funding formula that would allow for each district to have ten percent of the local school budget funded by the state.

McMorrow, a Scotch Plains resident, highlighted the differences in state aid cuts that are a part of Gov. Chris Christie's budget proposal. Westfield and Scotch Plains both lost over 90-percent of their state aid, as a part of the governor's decision to cut aid equal to five percent of the local school budget. Both districts are receiving less than a million dollars in state education aid as a result of the cuts. He noted that the five percent cut in Plainfield results in the city's schools receiving $112 million from the state and Elizabeth will received $319 million from the state after the Christie cuts.

"You put me in a classroom and I am a dreamer, take me out and I am a realist," McMorrow said. "I don't think we'll see the day when Westfield receives $75 million and Elizabeth receives $75 million."

He said that he sees Westfield and Scotch Plains being unfairly penalized when the districts have graduation rates and see large percentages of the graduating classes headed to college.

"If we were lawyers and won 95-percent of our cases, we would not be talking wage freezes," McMorrow said. "We're the ones doing it right."

McMorrow said he sees now as a time for people to come together and work out a new funding formula which helps both urban and suburban school districts in New Jersey. He sees the 10-percent of the local budget as one way to go.

"Once we get past the emotions of the next week or two, if there was ever a time for interested people to form a committee it is now," he said. "This is an opportunity for innovative people to come together and look at what we do right and what we need to change."

McMorrow's comments came after Schools Superintendent Margaret Dolan outlined budget cuts that include laying off 27 BOE staffers, along with cutting such programs as eighth grade sports, intermediate school fall dramas and purchasing library books. The cuts were to plug the $4.22 million budget hole caused by the state aid cuts.

McMorrow, a former Wall Street banker who said he's not active in the local teacher's union, called upon Christie and the state union to set aside their political differences and work together. Christie and the New Jersey Education Association have had a contentious relationship with Christie boycotting the NJEA endorsement meeting during last year's campaign, saying the union was biased against him. The NJEA endorsed former Gov. Jon Corzine.

"Governor Christie has to get past the political rhetoric just as the NJEA has to get past the political rhetoric," McMorrow said.

McMorrow stressed to the board and the audience, which was packed with parents and teachers, that there is no time to waste in looking at how to reinvent the education system.

"I feel the passion now," he said. "If we don't do something we'll be back here in three years and it will be worse. This is our time to do something for us."