Belleville and every other school district in New Jersey will be getting more financial help from the state government for the 2011-2012 academic year, the office of Gov. Chris Christie announced today.
A total of $850 million will be shared among every public district in the state, a bump which restores aid reductions made last year and adds $30 million, Christie’s office said in a statement. The largest amount of the money, $450 million, will go to the state’s Abbot, or low-income, districts. Another $150 million will be set aside for Belleville and all of New Jersey’s non-abbot districts. Another $150 million will be shared by both the Abbots and non-Abbots.
Belleville’s total aid award in 2010-11 was $22.6 million, which rises to $23.7 million in the upcoming academic year. About $1.15 million in aid is set aside for Belleville’s special education program.
In April, Belleville voters approved a “flat” school budget, which called for no increase in the amount of money to be raised through local taxation (although individual taxpayers may have seen their taxes go up depending on their property assessments).
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