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Saturday, January 2, 2016

Jersey Jazzman: Return To Teachers Village, Part IV: What's It Costing Us?

Jersey Jazzman: Return To Teachers Village, Part IV: What's It Costing Us?:

Return To Teachers Village, Part IV: What's It Costing Us?

Here are links to all of the posts in this series:

Part I - Introduction
Part II - The Teachers
Part III - The Students
Part IV - What's It Costing Us?



 * * *

Q: How much taxpayer money is flowing to Newark's Teachers Village?

A: Quite a bit.

All school districts, including charter schools, are required by the state to file a Comprehensive Annual Financing Report (CAFR) with the NJDOE. All of my numbers below come from these documents, but before I get to them, I'd like to point out a specific paragraph from the 2014 CAFR for Great Oaks Charter School.

Keep in mind that Great Oaks both leases space from TV for its school, and pays to put up its "tutor corps" in TV housing units. The tutors are not certificated teachers; they are recent college graduates, paid through federal AmeriCorps grants, who take on part of the instructional load at the charter.

Here's how Great Oaks sees the future of Newark, and its part in it:
The City has experienced a surge of large-scale economic development projects initiated by the private sector over the last decade. The increasing number of businesses relocating to the area is expected to result in an increase in employment level, which could result in an increased tax base, both residential and industrial, and an increase in annual daily enrollment. The period of economic development and expansion is expected to continue which suggests that the Charter School will continue to prosper. As our enrollment increases we plan to lease additional facilities at our current location and possibly in surrounding areas in the City. [emphasis mine]
I find this quite telling: this charter school sees the potential positive change in Newark's economic fortunes going hand-in-hand with its own growth. They anticipate diverting
- See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2016/01/return-to-teachers-village-part-iv.html#sthash.8eFyqjZ1.dpuf