CHALKBEAT: Interdistrict Public School Choice Program could expand with bipartisan support amid funding, equity hurdles

In a race defined by radically different approaches to education, school choice may be one of the few things New Jersey’s gubernatorial candidates agree on.

Both Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli say they support expanding the state’s Interdistrict Public School Choice Program, which lets some students attend public schools outside their home district. Sherrill says the program could be used to integrate New Jersey’s persistently segregated school system, while Ciattarelli wants to pair it with a Florida-style private school voucher program.

The candidates’ focus could bring life to a program that’s been stalled for more than a decade because of lack of funding. It could also mean that Newark and other districts in Essex County might participate for the first time since the program’s inception in 1999.

There are currently 119 so-called “choice districts” and about 5,000 students who participate in the program, with another 2,500 students on a waitlist, said Wells Winegar, executive director of the New Jersey Policy Institute think tank, who worked under former Gov. Chris Christie. He added that expanding the program could help districts that are facing enrollment declines while giving families more school options.

“It was designed to help families find public schools that fit their child’s needs,” Winegar said, while providing parents “an overall kind of better environment for their child without having to pay private school tuition.”