School budget thoughts
Friday, April 12, 2013
The Ridgewood News
Thoughts on school budget
Janice Willett
Ridgewood
To the editor:
The Board of Education and the school administration have worked hard to make the cuts necessary to hold the line on a property tax increase of 2 percent — at least for the upcoming school year. But a look at the numbers shows that we are bumping up against some hard realities after that.
Certain categories of spending are increasing much more rapidly than others and may soon create the need for significant additional cuts. The proposed 2013-14 budget calls for $30.9 million in spending on regular instruction, up from $29.7 million in the 2011-12 school year — an annual rate of increase of 1.9 percent. Spending on special education (including remedial, bilingual, speech, OT/PT and tuition for out-of-district placements) is budgeted at $20.3 million, up from $16.7 million in 2011-12 — an annual rate of increase of 10.3 percent. (These numbers do not include transportation costs or employee benefits or various administrative, support and operating costs.)
https://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/202644041_Letter__School_budget_thoughts.html
