Schools

Brick Officials Pan School Funding Decision

NJ Supreme Court ruled $500 million must go to 31 poor districts

A New Jersey Supreme Court decision that will send $500 million in education aid to 31 poor school districts out of the state's 591 total operating districts has proved unpopular with local officials in Brick.

"The court’s decision continues the practice of propping up failing schools at the expense of taxpayers in towns like Brick Township,” said Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis. “This decision is unfair to Brick Township and the taxpayers of New Jersey.”

By a 3-2 vote, the court ordered the state to fully fund the 2008 School Funding Reform Act, but only as it applies to 31 districts with a high percentage of students from poor families. That law, adopted in 2008, promised to provide school districts throughout New Jersey with enough money to enable their students to achieve the "thorough and efficient" education promised in the New Jersey state constitution.

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But in the 2011 budget proposed by Gov. Chris Christie and adopted by the legislature, SFRA was under-funded by almost $1.6 billion, according to the court's calculations. The governor and lawmakers said they had no choice, given the state's $11 billion budget deficit. In what many court observers described as a compromise remedy, state officials have been ordered to fund only $500 million of that $1.6 billion which is to be directed to the poorest districts.

Critics have long held that the court's mandate to direct the bulk of state edcuation funding to the poorest districts starves suburban districts of state aid and leads to New Jersey's highest-in-the-nation property taxes. Proponents of such funding practices say the extra money is needed to level the playing field between wealthier suburban students and often poor urban students.

Find out what's happening in Brickwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

For Board of Education member Larry Reid, chair of the board's operations committee, the numbers in the state's funding formulas do not compute.

"The supreme court decision is a continuation of a failed policy of directing almost 60 percent of all educational state aid to 5 percent of the school districts," said Reid, in an e-mail. "This failed policy steers money away from the other 569 school districts, one of which is Brick. I would hope that the citizens of these 569 districts would each get one bus load of residents to descend on Trenton to protest this NJ Supreme Court decision."

Acropolis shared Reid's anger on the issue.

“The Court’s answer has always been to give more money to those districts, despite evidence that shows it is not improving student performance," he said. "Over half of all state funding is given to only 31 districts. Meanwhile, districts like Brick Township are facing staff and program reductions because of the loss of aid.  This is hurting our students and taxpayers.”

Brick's state aid figures increased by $1.3 million this year under Christie's proposed budget. The township council recently ordered the district to direct approximately $1 million from its $136 million proposed operating budget to its capital improvement budget, following a rejection of the spending plan at the polls by voters.


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