To The Editor:

It is difficult to explain to your child why he or she has to go down four flights of stairs just to use the restroom at school, or have class in the hallway everyday. Even more troubling is helping your child rationalize how he or she can eat their lunch in only ten minutes and then proceed immediately to recess, because there are several more shifts of children that have to be served in the limited space and the limited time provided.

For parents in school districts throughout the State, however,  this is a daily reality; justifying why an edifice that pre-dates the presidency of Chester A. Arthur has not been demolished and rebuilt to reflect the contemporary needs of today’s students.

Since 1973, The New Jersey State Supreme Court has made it clear that capital expenditures are indeed inclusive in the “thorough and efficient education” clause of the New Jersey State Constitution, and therefore incumbent upon the State Legislature to fund.

Several subsequent rulings have emboldened this precedent, including a consortium of “Abbott” decisions that unequivocally mandated the State to fund educational facilities in the State.

In 2000, the Educational Facilities Construction Financing Act was passed as a bi-partisan effort by the State Legislature. Because there was no existing administrative conduit in place to manage the funds, Former Governor McGreevy created the School Construction Corporation (SCC) by executive order in 2002. Needless to say this entity was a complete and utter debacle; severely damaging the credibility of the State’s school construction initiative, and crippling the capability of the State to fulfill its court-mandated obligation.

(This reprehensible act by this transient entity was absolutely despicable. I have repeatedly called for the unmitigated prosecution of any and all individuals associated with the fraud, misuse, or abuse of the previously allocated funds.)

Upon the fitting abolishment of the SCC, Governor Corzine created, by executive order, a new intermediary to administrate school construction in New Jersey, the Schools Development Authority (SDA). This nascent entity was designed with multiple provisions that would essentially preclude the incompetence of the SCC from being repeated.

Among the stipulations contained in the law that created the Schools Development Authority are that the SDA is only authorized to build facilities for Abbott districts, will experience frequent, unannounced external audits by Ernst & Young, and must issue a report to the Governor and Legislature on its entire operations every six months.
 
However, devoid of a concurrent bonding measure to fund school construction under the SDA, children would still be without the schools that were promised to them. Along with Senator Ronald Rice, I decided to take leadership on this issue as prime sponsor of a bonding measure in 2006. Unfortunately, the bill did not make it to the Senate floor.

This past June, a bill that would allow the State to increase bonding to the Economic Development Authority, for the purposes of school construction, came before the Senate again, this time for a floor vote.

Opponents of the bill argued that the measure should be put before the voters of the State in the form of a referendum, which would ostensibly be on the ballot in November. Yet based on the aforementioned sordid history of school construction managed by the SCC, that possibility seems highly unlikely; and moreover it would just giving children and parents more false hope.

After listening to a considerable amount of deliberation on the floor; I decided to rise before the Senate to communicate the gravity of the situation, and more importantly, speak for the children who are suffering under these conditions. I explained that we have a crisis in our inner cities; one that would only exacerbate with time, unless funding was obtained. I emphatically stated to my legislative colleagues that I refused to let our children suffer simply because we have not acted. Ultimately, it is the children that have to pay the price of not having adequate facilities.

The bill ended up passing the Senate that day, and because it had already been voted favorably in the General Assembly, it went directly to the Governor for consideration, and was subsequently signed into law on July 9th 2008.

Paterson, which composes roughly half the population of my district, is now slated to receive immediate funding for school construction projects by the Schools Development Authority. The approved projects include Public School #3 on Main Street, Public School #16 on 22nd Avenue, Public School 25 on Trenton Avenue, a new Hazel Marshal Elementary School on Marshall Street, and improvements to the bridge on Marshall Street.

Every child in this State should have an equal opportunity to achieve success. A quality educational facility should not be considered a luxury to which only children in certain districts can have access.
Sincerely,

 
John A. Girgenti
Senator, District 35