(Click here for video and photos of Lakewood at the May Rally) A controversial school choice bill will undergo significant changes in an effort to win legislative approval before the end of the month, its sponsor said today. Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) said the Opportunity Scholarship Act will be adjusted by limiting the pilot program to “chronically failing schools in specific municipalities,” based on local legislators’ support. The proposal had targeted 176 “chronically failing schools” throughout the state, Lesniak said. He declined to say how many schools might be targeted now, but cities still certain to be involved include Newark, Camden and Elizabeth, he said.
The new version of the bill would also eliminate an “innovation fund” and allow districts to keep the difference between the cost of the scholarship and the state aid for that child, Lesniak said. He spoke at a press conference where more than a dozen members of the Black Ministers’ Council of New Jersey urged Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) to support the bill. Read full story in Star Ledger
No mention of Lakewood, and no oportunity for private schools!!
if our children are in a private school how would they justify giving us money to transfer our children , where would they be coming from and going to,? I thought it was $ meant for students in failing schools to leave the public and go to a private or charter?
The easiest way to drive home the point that vouches actually SAVE the state money – is to mass register all of our thousands of ‘pupils’ in public school. Two days before school starts.