Soon some New Jersey children may be getting on the bus earlier, getting off later and participating in a longer school year. The Senate Education Committee recently approved a bill giving up to 25 school districts the option to take part in a three-year pilot program extending the school day and year.
Sen. Teresa Ruiz is one of the prime sponsors. “Our children have to compete internationally and that should be the focus for everyone,” she said. “And so I can recognize where individuals would say, well why just extend the day? But the importance of that is to ensure that during that extended time frame that the district who understands the needs of the students will engage in what’s most important during that time frame.”
Frank Belluscio, deputy executive director of the New Jersey School Boards Association, said an extended day and year could be beneficial. “Research clearly shows that the more instructional time, the more teacher-student contact time is made available, the better children do, but we’ve always been restricted here financially,” he said. “This will provide a revenue stream.”
Costs for the program would be capped at $24 million the first year, $48 million the second and $72 million for the third. The bill proposes a corporate tax credit to fund the program, additional expenses and compensation, but Ruiz says that’s just a starting point.
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“Corporate business tax is a good way, I believe there are federal grants and funding that could be made available, and philanthropic money,” Ruiz said. “So however which way the Department of Education would like to see this engage as far as having a revenue source tied to it, we don’t have to worry about what the economies will be for that current year because there will be other pools of money to help fund it.”
Parent Alex Wnorowsky is in favor of the extensions. “As long as it doesn’t increase our taxes, I’m good with it,” he said. “And it will help give the kids get more education, nothing wrong with that.”
The New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) and the New Jersey Association of School Administrators mostly support the bill, but agree that there needs to be further research on funding, how the extra time will be spent and some other issues.
“The key is what are you doing in that extra time? That’s what were concerned about,” said NJEA Vice President Wendell Steinhauer. “We have good research on what works and what doesn’t work, making sure it’s a comfortable environment.”
Richard Bozza, executive director of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, said, “Parents are concerned about athletics, co-curricular activities, religious instruction, other kinds of things and we are also a state that values tourism. If we’re talking time in the summer, we’re also talking about competition from people from vacations and other things.”
The bill states that school districts applying to the program must be supported by a majority of the staff and parents. The legislation now heads to the Senate Budget Committee for consideration.
Dari Kotzker reports from Trenton.