Public Money for PUBLIC Schools! Stop the McCorristin Charter School Application!
New Jersey Department of Education
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ADDENDUM, dated 6/16/2024:
This petition was initially circulated beginning on Monday, April 15th. That Friday, April 19th, we were made aware that the Department of Education approved McCorristin’s application. Both affected school districts have a right to appeal this decision, however. We expect both Trenton and Hamilton Public Schools will do so. We will continue to organize, and to demonstrate that our communities oppose this new charter school expansion across both municipalities.
Our Revolution Trenton Mercer (ORTM) was also recently made aware of the projected financial impact on Trenton Public Schools. Per their budget presentation at the April 29th Board of Education meeting, Trenton projects about $70M of its budget, in total, to be stolen away by privately-run charter schools. That’s almost 14% of the entire Trenton School District Budget!
The majority of this projected $14M funding increase is because of McCorristin. This is based on the year 1 student enrollment projections in McCorristin’s own application, and the cost per 100 students Hamilton Superintendent Rocco cited in his letter. Dr. Rocco pulled this cost number from a memo distributed by the NJ Charter School Lobby. Because state law empowers charter schools to steal a set amount of money away from public school districts for each student, we can use these numbers to calculate McCorristin’s projected impact on Trenton. With 375 Trenton students pulling almost $19k per student from Trenton’s Public School District, that cost will exceed $7M in funding in year 1 alone.
For context: Trenton is allocating almost $38M in its budget for capital outlay – that means facilities acquisition and construction services, equipment, and similar expenses. That is barely more than HALF the amount it will be forced to divert to Charter Schools. The up to $8M to be sent to McCorristin is more than the budget allocates for equipment purchases ($5M).
At the time we initially published this petition, we did not have Trenton’s budget estimate on hand. We were therefore unable to accurately project the financial impact to Trenton’s schools. Nonetheless, we have suspected this entire time that, while Hamilton would be hurt by having about $5M in public funding stolen away by this new, privately-run charter school, Trenton would be even more severely impacted. This has been confirmed by Trenton’s budget.
It is unacceptable to divert almost a full SEVENTH of Trenton School’s ENTIRE budget to privately-run, unaccountable charter schools. It is even more unacceptable to expand, and add a NINTH charter school in the broader Trenton area, with the vast majority primarily pulling funding out of Trenton’s Public School District. There is no good reason to add the burden of another charter school to a district already grossly overburdened with them.
Please sign the petition below, and join us in declaring that, especially in Trenton, public money should go to PUBLIC schools – and not yet another privately-run charter school!
*REFERENCE INFORMATION*
TRENTON BUDGET BIG-PICTURE/CHARTER SCHOOL FINANCIALS:
Total budget: $503,685,165
Total funds sent to charter schools: $70,080,174
2023-2024 funding to charter schools: $56,274,822
Increase from last year: $13,805,352.00
LINKS TO TRENTON BUDGET: Direct Link | Parent folder
McCorristin Projected Student Enrollment by Home School District | Funding to McCorristin | ||
Total | 500 | Total cost to districts | $9,371,585.00 |
Trenton | 375 | Cost to Trenton | $7,028,688.75 |
Hamilton | 125 | Cost to Hamilton | $2,342,896.25 |
McCorristin Projected Student Enrollment by Home School District | Funding to McCorristin | ||
Total | 500 | Total cost to districts | $9,371,585.00 |
Trenton | 250 | Cost to Trenton | $4,685,792.50 |
Hamilton | 250 | Cost to Hamilton | $4,685,792.50 |
RECENT TRENTON CATHOLIC ACADEMY ENROLLMENT: As of 2021-22, 446 students enrolled in lower and upper school combined. This is close to the 500 student estimate in McCorristin's application. Links: Upper school | Lower school
Original Introduction:
We firmly believe every child deserves a quality education, and that a strong, robust public education system is the best way to ensure this. Unfortunately, a new charter school application in Hamilton has received phase 1 (tentative) approval, and may soon receive phase 2 (final) approval. This is an immediate and serious threat to our public education system!
According to publicly available information, McCorristin Charter School will be located on the grounds of what is now Trenton Catholic Preparatory Academy, and would likely enroll all current Trenton Catholic students in the new charter school. Approving this charter school would immediately divert $5 to $8 Million in Hamilton Public School funding to McCorristin Charter School, with no local control or oversight over this spending [1], [2]. This would negatively impact the over 12,000 children attending Hamilton Public Schools, removing critical resources and funding needed to upgrade our aging and inadequate school facilities, and provide a high quality education to our students.
Although the public has not been provided an estimate of the financial impact the new charter school would have on Trenton Public Schools, it is undoubtedly at least as large - hurting the almost 15,000 students in that district.
New Jersey charter schools are completely exempt from local oversight and control. Charter schools are governed by private boards of directors that are not at all accountable to the people of Hamilton and Trenton. That means that millions of dollars in Hamiltonians' and Trentonians' local property taxes would be diverted to fund this new charter school, WITHOUT the oversight or transparency that the Hamilton Board of Education and Superintendent provide to our local public schools. [3], [4]
Research has consistently shown that charter schools educate a different population of students than local public schools, increasing school segregation by race, ethnicity, English language proficiency, class/income levels, and special needs. [5], [6]
A charter school that requires millions of Trenton and Hamilton taxpayer dollars to function, particularly one named after a Catholic Monsignor, is completely unnecessary and would undermine our public school system.
Hamilton and Trenton taxpayers should not be forced to bail out Trenton Catholic Preparatory Academy, especially at great harm to our local public schools. Our public schools are accessible to everyone, publicly governed, and publicly transparent in their operations. Both districts are highly, and increasingly, diverse and integrated. Forcibly removing $5 to $8 million dollars a year, each, from our Trenton and Hamilton public schools, will hurt our students, increase public school segregation, and decrease transparency.
Please sign on to the petition below, to urge the Department of Education to reject the McCorristin Charter School proposal. Help ensure that our local public tax dollars fund our local public schools!
Sources:
[1] Hamilton Public Schools Budget Presentation, Feb 2024 School Board Meeting: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nGjLKhlsCqZE2_LaImngiyx4A76aIdGc/
[2] Hamilton Public Schools Budget Presentation, Mar 2024 School Board Meeting:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pgkYJfaA0wRBDUPonjFFIy41jn15s5A0/
[3] https://www.njspotlightnews.org/2015/11/15-11-23-op-ed-hold-charter-schools-to-same-standards-as-district-schools/
[4] https://www.chalkbeat.org/newark/2022/3/21/22989702/charter-school-segregation-new-jersey-studies-refuse-share-findings/
[5] Orfield, G. and Park, J. (2020). Choice and Segregation: Charter Schools and the Reshaping of Public Education. UCLA Civil Rights Project at the Institute for Social Equity and Justice.
[6] Reardon, S. F., & Owens, A. T. (2019). Charter School Enrollment and Income Segregation: Evidence from California. Stanford Education Policy Lab Working Paper.
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To:
New Jersey Department of Education
From:
[Your Name]
JUNE 16th, 2024 ADDENDUM:
This petition was initially circulated beginning on Monday, April 15th. That Friday, April 19th, ORTM was made aware that the Department of Education approved McCorristin’s application. Both affected school districts have a legal right to appeal this decision, however. We expect both Trenton and Hamilton Public Schools will do so. We will continue to organize, and to demonstrate that our communities oppose this new charter school expansion across both municipalities (and beyond).
We were also recently made aware of the projected financial impact on Trenton Public Schools. Per their budget presentation at the April 29th Board of Education meeting, Trenton projects about $70M of its 2024-25 budget, in total, to be stolen away by privately-run charter schools - a $14M increase from this past year. $70M is almost 14% of the entire Trenton School District Budget! And the majority of that $14M increase is projected to go to McCorristin, based on the enrollment numbers in their own application. This only further reinforces how severe an injury this charter school would inflict on the local public school districts. As such, we urge you to reject this petition upon appeal.
Continued below the initial petition, with sources...
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ORIGINAL PETITION:
We, the undersigned, hereby request that you deny the charter school application from the prospective "McCorristin Charter School". We do so in support of Hamilton Superintendent Dr. Scott Rocco, in line with letters he previously submitted to the New Jersey Department of Education[1].
We urge you to deny this application for the following reasons:
1. Lack of Community Notice or Involvement: The Hamilton and Trenton communities have not received any adequate notice that this proposed charter school application was being evaluated. We have only heard oblique references to it in Board of Education meetings, and information on this application has been locked-away behind closed doors. This is unacceptable and disrespectful to the residents and taxpayers of Hamilton, whose public school dollars would be diverted to fund the Charter School.
Furthermore, the charter school process in New Jersey is fundamentally undemocratic and dismisses local communities. Charter school applications are only evaluated by the state Department of Education, with no requirement to provide notice or documentation to the public until the end of that process - AFTER the decision has been made. This is despite the fact that, if approved, Charter Schools pull taxpayer money and students out of local public schools, hurting local communities' ability to educate their children.
2. Lack of adequate oversight: The New Jersey Department of Education (DOE) does NOT publicly release evaluations of individual charter schools to the public. The charter school application evaluation process and state oversight of charter schools are giant black boxes with no input or oversight by the communities severely impacted by these NJDOE decisions.[2]
3. Severe Financial Burden placed upon Hamilton's and Trenton's School Districts: Hamilton Township School District is one of the largest in the state, in the 9th most populous municipality in the state. It is a district with very old buildings and a large special education student population. In addition to other factors, this has and will continue to put a strain on the district's finances, if we do not begin to address these concerns. These are concerns that, in a very straightforward fashion, can be addressed with sufficient funds. We cannot afford to divert at least $5M - $8M million dollars a year to fund another charter school that would operate outside of local public oversight. We desperately need that funding for key district priorities, such as school facilities upgrades and our special education program.
Additionally - although data has not been made available to the public on the impact this charter school would have on the Trenton School District’s budget, we expect a similar financial burden to be placed upon Trenton. Considering that Trenton is a district with significant financial needs, we cannot imagine that it can afford yet another charter school burdening its already inadequate school budget.
4. Prevalence of Charter Schools in the Area: There are already 8 charter schools that, per the DOE Homeroom website, are located in the Trenton/Hamilton area.[3] This includes 5 in Trenton, 1 in Hamilton, and 2 others in nearby towns. Another charter school is unnecessary, and would overburden both Trenton - a district with 5 charters that has struggled, in part, because of the financial burdens these charters have placed upon the district - and Hamilton, for the reasons previously mentioned.
5. School Segregation: Research has consistently shown that charter schools serve fewer English language learners and fewer low income and special needs students, leading to those students being concentrated in local public schools without the resources to provide them with a high quality education - in part because the funding required to support those resources is diverted to charter schools![4] Charter schools also increase racial and ethnic segregation.[5] The state of New Jersey is already being sued in federal court on the grounds that our state has a segregated school system. Continuing to expand the use of charter schools, an institution with racist roots straight out of the Heritage Foundation and Koch brothers playbook, shows a severe lack of awareness and understanding.
6. Hamilton Township Public Schools (HTPS) provide a superior public education: As Dr. Rocco documented in his letter, HTPS provide a "more comprehensive and challenging curriculum", including more AP courses, honors courses, career pathways, etc. HTPS has also passed the NJ Quality Single Accountability Continuum evaluation in the last two review periods. There is no evidence to show the prospective charter school would be able to meet this standard.
It is not our local community's responsibility to bail out a private school with our tax dollars, defunding our public education system in the process. Every child has a right to a quality education, and there is a mountain of evidence that a strong, robust, public school system with local control and community input provides the best mechanism to ensure this right is delivered in an egalitarian manner.
For all of the reasons above, we urge you to do the right thing for the children of Hamilton, Trenton, and this region as a whole: reject McCorristin Charter School's application.
Respectfully,
Our Revolution Trenton Mercer and the undersigned individuals/organizations
Sources:
[1] Letter from Superintendent, Dr. Rocco, to Mayor Jeff Martin and Hamilton Council: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AKb1V4juhrEo7Z-5amUoFuKg9lN68Sqo/view?usp=sharing
[2] https://www.njspotlightnews.org/2015/11/15-11-23-op-ed-hold-charter-schools-to-same-standards-as-district-schools/
[3] https://homeroom6.doe.state.nj.us/charter/cscounty/21
[4] Reardon, S. F., & Owens, A. T. (2019). Charter School Enrollment and Income Segregation: Evidence from California. Stanford Education Policy Lab Working Paper.
[5] Orfield, G. and Park, J. (2020). Choice and Segregation: Charter Schools and the Reshaping of Public Education. UCLA Civil Rights Project at the Institute for Social Equity and Justice.
Funding estimates from
- Hamilton Public Schools Budget Presentation, Feb 2024 School Board Meeting: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nGjLKhlsCqZE2_LaImngiyx4A76aIdGc/
- Hamilton Public Schools Budget Presentation, Mar 2024 School Board Meeting:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pgkYJfaA0wRBDUPonjFFIy41jn15s5A0/
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ADDENDUM, continued:
The majority of Trenton Schools' projected $14M funding increase is because of McCorristin [6]. This is based on the year 1 student enrollment projections in McCorristin’s own application, and the cost per 100 students Hamilton Superintendent Rocco cited in his letter [1]. Dr. Rocco pulled this cost number from a memo distributed by the NJ Charter School Lobby. Because state law empowers charter schools to steal a set amount of money away from public school districts for each student, we usedthese numbers to calculate McCorristin’s projected impact on Trenton. With 375 Trenton students[7], pulling almost $19k per student from Trenton’s Public School District, that cost will exceed $7M in funding in year 1 alone.
For context: Trenton is allocating almost $38M in its budget for capital outlay – that means facilities acquisition and construction services, equipment, and similar expenses. That is barely more than HALF the amount it will be forced to divert to Charter Schools. The over $7M to be sent to McCorristin is more than the budget allocates for equipment purchases ($5M). [6]
At the time we initially wrote, and began circulating this petition, we did not have Trenton’s budget estimate on hand. We were therefore unable to accurately project the financial impact to Trenton’s schools. Nonetheless, we have suspected this entire time that, while Hamilton would be hurt by having about $5M in public funding stolen away by this new, privately-run charter school, Trenton would be even more severely impacted. This has been confirmed by Trenton’s budget.
It is unacceptable to divert almost a full SEVENTH of Trenton School’s ENTIRE budget to privately-run, unaccountable charter schools. It is even more unacceptable to expand, and add a NINTH charter school in the broader Trenton area, with the vast majority primarily pulling funding out of Trenton’s Public School District. There is no good reason to add the burden of another charter school to a district already grossly overburdened with them.
We again urge you to reject McCorristin Charter school's application, and keep Public Money in our PUBLIC School district - rather than stealing it away to fund yet another unaccountable, privately-run charter school. Thank you.
Respectfully,
Our Revolution Trenton Mercer and the undersigned individuals/organizations
*SOURCES AND REFERENCE INFORMATION*
[6] TRENTON BUDGET BIG-PICTURE/CHARTER SCHOOL FINANCIALS:
Total budget: $503,685,165
Total funds sent to charters: $70,080,174
2023-2024 funding to charters: $56,274,822
Increase from last year: $13,805,352.00
Link: https://www.trentonk12.org/departments/business
[7] "McCorristin Charter School Application Phase 2-B." Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yy3p00rPYeC8rakjay0oll_2pCKLbmK7/view
Link to parent folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1p7lmb5g94a9RuIFJ48JAwUfyq4knReAF
[8] RECENT YEARS' TRENTON CATHOLIC ACADEMY ENROLLMENT NUMBERS:
As of 2021-22, 446 students enrolled in lower and upper school combined. This is close to the 500 student estimate in application
Upper school: https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pss/privateschoolsearch/school_detail.asp?Search=1&SchoolName=Trenton+Catholic+Preparatory+Academy&NumOfStudentsRange=more&IncGrade=-1&LoGrade=-1&HiGrade=-1&ID=00867582
Lower school:
https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pss/privateschoolsearch/school_detail.asp?Search=1&SchoolName=Trenton+Catholic+Preparatory+Academy&NumOfStudentsRange=more&IncGrade=-1&LoGrade=-1&HiGrade=-1&ID=A1101558