Nearly three-quarters of the districts' surveyed blame $820M N.J. budget cuts
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Gov. Chris Christie answers questions from students in classroom 306 at Montclair High School. Students in more than 80 percent of New Jersey's public schools will see fewer teachers when they go back to class in September, leading to larger class sizes and reduced programs, a survey released today by the New Jersey School Boards Association found.
Nearly three-quarters of the districts blamed state aid cuts of $820 million in this year's austere budget for the reductions, the survey found. Districts also cited student enrollment declines, defeated budgets and long-term financial planning.
The association said the survey — completed by 40 percent of the state's school districts — shows the importance of $268 million in federal aid expected to be passed Tuesday by the U.S. House of Representatives.
The largest portion of districts &mdash 47 percent — said up to 5 percent of teachers would be gone. Almost 37 percent of districts said they would reduce teaching staff by 6 percent to 10 percent, another 11 percent said there would be a 11 percent to 15 percent reduction, and almost 5 percent said they would cut 16 percent or more of their teachers.
Just over 10 percent of districts said there would be no negative impact to the loss of teachers. Meanwhile, 42 percent said the most significant impact would be larger class sizes and 35 percent said programs would be cut back or eliminated.
