TRENTON – Senator Joseph V. Doria, one of the members of the Joint Legislative Committee on Public School Funding Reform, made the follow statement today following today’s hearing in which the Committee heard testimony on efforts of the department to determine a per pupil cost of education:
“Establishing a fair level of per pupil educational spending is in my mind the most important issue we’ve looked at so far.
“For a new funding formula to be successful, we must determine a per pupil cost that is based upon successful education practices and not simply which school districts spend the most money.
“Without an accurate per pupil cost, we won’t be able to produce a formula that adequately funds our educational system at a reasonable cost for taxpayers and provides a distribution that is fair and equitable for all of our schools.
“This is something we must give a great deal of consideration to in order to ensure that any new funding formula passes the muster of the Supreme Court.”