TRENTON – Senator Sandra Bolden Cunningham and her 31st Legislative District colleagues — Assemblymen Charles Mainor and Jason O’Donnell — will host a community meeting Monday on legislation that would provide scholarships to certain students in the Jersey City School District, as well as 12 other under-performing districts, which would allow them to attend a different school.
The lawmakers will join educational leaders to discuss and answer questions from the public on the Opportunity Scholarship Act, a proposed law that would establish a five-year pilot program to provide scholarships to low-income students in chronically failing school districts. The scholarships would be funded by corporations which would receive a dollar-for-dollar reimbursement in the form of state tax credits; the tax credits would be offset by a reduction in state aid to schools. Under the program, parents could send their children to either a participating private school or an out-of-district public school participating in the program.
The legislation recently was approved by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee. Its next step is consideration by the full Senate.
WHO: Senator Sandra Bolden Cunningham, Assemblyman Charles Mainor and Assemblyman Jason O’Donnell, along with Jersey City Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Charles T. Epps, NJ E3 (Excellent Education For Everyone) Executive Director Derrell Bradford and NJ NAACP President James Harris.
WHAT: Community Briefing on the Opportunity Scholarship Act (S-1872)
WHERE: Mary McLeod Bethune Life Center, 140 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Jersey City, NJ 07305
DATE: Monday, January 31, 2011
TIME: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.