Following Governor Chris Christie’s budget address and plea to Democrats to put together an education funding solution, Assembly Republican Leader Jon Bramnick (R-21) sent a letter to Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-32).

“Yesterday, Governor Christie gave the legislature 100 days to work with him to fix education funding in our great state. Everyone, including Democrats and Republicans agree that the funding formula is broken and needs to be fixed. The current system is unfair, unsustainable and too costly for families across the state. I believe that we can cut down the branches of partisanship and forge a new path,” Bramnick wrote.

“We did it before when we worked together to reform pension and health benefits and revitalize the Transportation Trust Fund. We can do it again with education. The Republican caucus has ideas ready to discuss with you and want to hear the majority’s ideas. We can cut property taxes by 35 percent and increase funding by $600 million with

simple, common sense solutions. We can distribute funding fairly to districts across the state based on need to support every student. Let’s do this together.”

Prieto is leery of Christie’s proposed per-pupil proposal and told the media after Christie’s address that while he’s open to a dialogue, he believes the system needs tweaks only, not an overhaul.