The Garden State Coalition of Schools has issued a statement opposing two bills currently in Assembly: S1882, which would allow municipalities to charge local school districts for crossing guards, and S2850, which would set a minimum wage for private food services operations in local government agencies, including schools.

(GSC was once considered a Bergen County (i.e., rich suburban district) advocacy group, but now has expanded to other counties and 120 school districts. Most GSC member districts still rate a high DFG, though, for example, Ewing in Mercer County is on the list, with a DFG of DE.)

Lynn Strickland, Executive Director of GSC, says that S2850, which would set a “prevailing wage” among food district workers, would amount to yet another unfunded mandate from the State. In addition, the new regulations from the D.O.E. require that district food service operations do no worse than break even, so ordering an increase in wages would put many districts out of compliance with the very regulations that are bound to comply with.

The union for food services workers is Service Workers International (SEIU) and representatives have been showing up at lots of school board meetings in New Jersey over the last couple of months, with signs and very large inflatable rats (really). The Union recently commissioned a study from Rutgers University Center for Women and Work, which concluded that many school district food workers get below minimum wage, mainly due to the weasly wiles of Pomptonian Food Service, which employs 700 SEIU members.

Should food workers get more money? Sure, that would be nice. But how do we make the math work? Right now no district can raise their budget above the 4% cap. NJEA contractual raises are commonly above that already, so we’re in the hole before we start. Plus, the State has been stiffing districts on school aid payments, which sinks districts even deeper. And regulations, of course, demand balanced budgets. Not to mention that we spend more on per pupil than anywhere else in the country. The goal here is to cut costs, not raise them.

(FYI: Food services would be more cost-effective if districts consolidated.)

It’s a Catch-22. If we pay food service workers fairly/in accordance with proposed S2850, then we’re out of compliance with State regulations because cafeterias won’t break even. Now, the D.O.E. can “correct” the regulations – this is a regular occurrence since they were so poorly vetted – and make an exception for food service costs, we suppose. Or a district could decide to not offer prepared food, or only offer it to Title I kids, and have custodians keep the cafeteria clean. Or we could pass out pre-packaged bologna sandwiches – oops, can’t do that. There’s state regulations that mandate certain nutritional benchmarks. The question is how much financial stress can we put on the backs of school districts without compromising learning?

Answer: not this much.