The New Jersey House of Representatives rejected yesterday the Senate amendment to appropriate $33,000 in unclaimed lottery funds to full-time Public School System teachers.
House Education Committee chair Justo S. Quitugua said the bill now goes to the conference committee for resolution.
He said there is a need to change "some language" in the bill. For instance, he said that, if the entire fund of $33,000 is distributed among the 500 PSS teachers, each recipient would only end up getting $66.
"Isn't it insulting to do that?" asked Quitugua.
He said there is also an issue with the proposed expenditure authority, which would lie with individual teachers.
He said that, if the expenditure authority is given to each teacher, it requires all teachers to sign separate procurement documents.
"One obstacle there is that they can't order by the bulk. It would be very difficult because you'd have all the teachers having to sign up," he said.
He said he believes that it is "not a good practice" of fund management. He said schools are managed by school principals.
House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial appointed three members to the conference committee: Quitugua, Commerce Committee chair Martin Ada, and House Ways and Means Committee chair Norman S. Palacios.
The Senate has yet to appoint its own members.
The upper chamber earlier amended the bill to ensure that the unclaimed lottery funds would go to teachers for urgent classroom use.
The bill originally wanted to give the funds, then totaling $24,000, to the Postsecondary Teacher Education Program Scholarship.
PSS teacher representative Ambrose Bennett had lobbied the Senate to allocate the funds to classroom teachers who are oftentimes forced to use their own money to buy badly needed classroom supplies.
In the amended bill, the Senate acknowledged that "many teachers currently purchase supplies for their students out of their own pockets due to inadequate supplies."
"Lack of much needed supplies deprives our children of the quality education they are rightfully entitled to. Therefore, this bill intends to alleviate some of the financial burden on the schools and teachers of PSS," reads part of the bill.
Sen. Joseph M. Mendiola, chair of the Committee on Fiscal Affairs, said the teacher education program scholarship "receives funding as per Public Law 13-24."
The Senate said that any full-time PSS teacher is eligible for the funds and shall be the expenditure authority, subject to the concurrence of the school principal.
The funds are the accumulated unclaimed lottery prizes from 1998 to 2004.
PSS teacher representative Ambrose Bennett had lobbied the Senate to allocate the funds to classroom teachers who are oftentimes forced to use their own money to buy badly needed classroom supplies.
If this is true the matter needs investigating by the lawmakers and they need to either allocate money to cover the cost out of the general revenues if there's not lottery money available, or they need to abandon the illusion they're providing an education for the kids in their jurisdictions.
But then, it probably isn't true. Just a bit of theatrics on the part of teachers trying to divert a bit more funding, which is understandable.
Jack
No, that kind of thing actually happens, I've seen it myself. Even with things like having teachers attend training sessions, sometimes the parents get together and pool their money to send a teacher to a convention or training when the school won't do it.
It's pretty sad, you have a specific number of teachers in the state, and they can't just send them a check? They have to go through a contract type process to distribute the money? I say let it ride and at the end of the year whatever is in the pool, divide it equally among all current teachers. Let it be a bonus as a way of saying "we appreciate your efforts in our state".
If I got a 50 buck bonus I wasn't expecting, I would think MOST teachers would be thankful for it.
C.K.
NJ should set up a scholarship fund, for all unclaimed lottery funds, and award scholarships to students to attend non-state schools.
Well, I guess they must speak Spanish in New Jersey: "rejectes" that must be Spanish!!
Lottery is a lousy way to fund education. It can't be used for pay raises because the income is so uncertain and if you use it for building schools, etc., it doesn't stretch that far. It has to go into the general fund and then the money gets lost in the shuffle. Might as well own up to these facts and stop pretending lottery really aids education. It raises extra money for the state . . .period.
Orangeman
Lottery is a lousy way to fund education. It can't be used for pay raises because the income is so uncertain and if you use it for building schools, etc., it doesn't stretch that far. It has to go into the general fund and then the money gets lost in the shuffle. Might as well own up to these facts and stop pretending lottery really aids education. It raises extra money for the state . . .period.
Orangeman
However, it does do that.
I wonder if the issue of where the money goes is really an important one. I've never cared much, and I doubt anyone in NM would buy fewer tickets than they buy today if it was learned the money was all going to fund some new Trinity project for the Los Alamos boys to assemble another atomic bomb to shoot off on us, maybe make Sky City a literality.
Arguments about where the money's going to go seem mainly to be an exercize in rationalizing rhetoric on behalf of lawmakers when they're trying to find excuses to let the voting public do what it ought to be able to do without their permission.
Jack
People like to argue over lottery proceeds.
Well, they do.
Yes they do.
teachers should be paid more than they are......
its ashamed that teachers make less and they are the ones who are role models.