‘School choice’ bill is effort to create a voucher program in New Jersey, critics say

New Jersey would spend $250 million in taxpayer funds for students to attend private schools under new legislation that public school advocates are bashing as an ill-disguised effort to create a voucher program here.

The bill would give residents a tax break for contributions they make to an organization that would then dole out that money to students for scholarships to attend private schools.

There’s an income cap for eligibility — to qualify, students must be from households with incomes up to 4.3 times the federal income guidelines for reduced price lunch. That’s $248,196 for a family of four. For schools to participate, they must be in New Jersey and participate in the federal free and reduced lunch program.

The bill’s 14 Democratic sponsors call their plan the “New Jersey Student Support Act.”

“The intention of the bill is to create options for everyone to be able to grow in the best setting that fits them,” said Assemblyman Avi Schnall (D-Ocean), one of the bill’s sponsors.

Critics call the plan “garbage.”

“This is a time when our public schools are hurting. A third of our schools are facing teacher layoffs right now … and the Legislature can’t bring itself to figure out how to solve that problem. But 14 Democrats introduced this piece of garbage,” said Julia Sass Rubin, a public policy professor at Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy who studies education policy.

Most people who take advantage of vouchers have never had their kids in public school to begin with, added Julie Larrea Borst, executive director of Save Our Schools NJ Community Organizing.

“So you’re just giving a tax break to wealthy people,” she said.

Stealthy introduction

Some of the critics’ fury stems from secrecy around the bill.

It first appeared in the Statehouse and got assigned a bill number in mid-February. But six weeks later, there’s still no verbiage online, even though the bill’s supporters have known about it long enough to build a website advocating for its passage.

Critics have mobilized in recent days, and more than 50 public school advocates and progressive activists signed a letter they sent Tuesday to Gov. Phil Murphy and legislators to oppose the bill.

“No state would presume to interfere in a family’s decision to send their children to private school. But public money is for public education, the bedrock of our communities and our democracy. Private school vouchers don’t belong here, and you know that, too,” they wrote.

Much of the resistance is rooted in broad opposition to vouchers, which activists have fought off before in New Jersey.

Critics contend vouchers do not result in better academic outcomes and instead hurt public schools by siphoning off students and state support. Many parents who pick private over public schooling opt for religious schools, meaning that public funds then get used for religious education, they add.

Private schools aren’t subject to the same accountability checks public schools face, Larrea Borst said. She also raised civil rights concerns, because schools can impose their religious beliefs on those they employ and teach. And other states like Arizona that started similar programs subsequently expanded them so much that they became “budget busters,” she added.

“This is all part of: defund the public schools, create systems that make it look like they’re not serving people well or they’re failing, perpetuate the story of failure, and blame teachers for everything. The parents’ rights thing and the book banning thing are not actually about parents’ rights and what kids read. It’s about creating distrust in the public institution of public schools, and then being able to swoop in and say, ‘Oh, but here we can help you exit that,’” Larrea Borst said. “New Jersey hasn’t funded public schools properly for decades.”

One of the biggest backers of the bill — TeachNJ, a PAC supported by the Orthodox Jewish community — donated $116,400 to Democrats in the weeks before last November’s election, state campaign finance records show. The group also endorsed 13 of the bill’s 14 sponsors.

“Our Legislature is a transactional system, and this reeks of a deal that was struck,” Sass Rubin said.

Dan Mitzner is director of government affairs for Teach Coalition, of which TeachNJ is a member.

About 160,000 children attend nonpublic schools in New Jersey, and “that represents tens of thousands of parents, grandparents, and other eligible voters who are deeply invested in their success,” Mitzner said in a statement.

“We are proud to work alongside numerous elected officials who know and understand this need, and who we consider our partners in making education accessible for all New Jersey families in an environment that best suits their educational needs,” he added.

Schnall defended Democrats’ support of the bill, saying school choice has historically been “a bipartisan issue.”

“On a federal level, people like Sen. Cory Booker and others that are progressive Democrats have been longstanding supporters of school choice in New Jersey. Ray Lesniak was the sponsor of the original Scholarship Opportunity Act, and he was a mighty progressive Democrat,” he said.

It shouldn’t matter where a student goes if the state is committed to educating children, he added.

“Every child is a child of the state, and all the children of the state are children of taxpayers,” Schnall said. “So when they refer to public school or public money, I believe taxpayer money should go to taxpayers’ children. We should not debate which children should or shouldn’t be getting support from the state.”

Bill sponsor Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth) and several other sponsors of the bill did not respond to the New Jersey Monitor’s requests for comment. The bill has not yet been assigned to a committee, and it’s unclear when it might come up for a hearing.