Dear Governor Christie:

Our community is united and has come together once again to ask you to fund our schools adequately and fairly.  School Administrators, School Board Members, Republican, Democratic and Independent elected officials, Moms and Dads, Senior Citizens and Frustrated Taxpayers are speaking with one voice to demand financial consideration for the thousands of students in our districts not recognized by the state.  Fully funding the existing school funding formula (SFRA) would provide the adequate educational state aid our extraordinary growth districts in Southern Gloucester County are entitled to and our children deserve.

This issue has been devastating our school systems and property taxes for a decade now, and we are sick and tired of being a political football in Trenton and getting caught up in, as your Acting Education Commissioner Cerf stated recently, a “Political Food Fight”.  We have done everything that has been asked of us to secure our equitable school funding, including your personal advice to get a bill passed and on your desk that addresses the situation.  We did it – and you pocket vetoed the bill.  Your office’s explanation for the veto was that this issue needed to be addressed during the budget process, rather than through legislation.   Well it is budget time Governor, and we are asking you to do the right thing by our children, and our communities, and do what you pledged to do, “help us”. 

There is plenty of blame to go around when we look back at how we reached the tipping point in our schools ability to provide the excellent education that has come to be expected of them.  We are not interested in pointing fingers or assigning blame, we simply want this financial crisis to be fixed.  We don’t care who gets credit, or scores political points, we want it fixed!  At the Woolwich Township Town Hall meeting on April 23, 2012, Senate President Sweeney committed to introducing a budget resolution to add a line item into the budget that helps address the inadequate funding crisis in our extraordinary growth districts.  The time to fix this is Right Now, while the budget is still being negotiated, and we implore you to take the lead to get it done.