9th District Aims To Cut School Aid Losses With New Bill

TRENTON, NJ — The 9th Legislative District is poised to lose more than $10 million in school state aid this year, and Sen. Carmen Amato, Asm. Brian Rumpf and Asm. Greg Myhre hope to fix that.

The legislators have introduced companion bills (S-3075/A-4166) that would ensure that the amount of State school aid disbursed to a district in a school year would be reduced by no more than one percent of the prior year’s amount of school aid, they announced in a news release.

Amato, Rumpf and Myhre said they introduced the bills in response to fears that the aid losses from the S-2 funding formula will lead to schools being unable to properly educate students.

“Last year, school districts received roughly two-thirds of the school aid they otherwise would have lost under the state’s school funding formula,” the delegation said in a statement. “It is, therefore, understandable that these school districts, would expect Trenton to follow through on reforming the school funding formula which, as acknowledged last year, is harshly flawed, and continues to fail too many in our state’s public education system.”

Cuts like the $3.2 million aid loss in Lacey and nearly $3 million in Toms River mean teachers may have ballooning class sizes, if not having their positions cut entirely, the delegation said.

“It is simply indefensible to ignore the desperate pleas of educators and allow these school aid cuts to be imposed. Supporters of the school funding formula need to take a hard look at the other side of the equation,” Amato, Rumpf and Myhre said.

“Based on the feedback we have received from school districts and testimony offered on the state’s school funding formula, we have drafted legislation that would ensure that the amount of State school aid disbursed to a district in a school year would not be reduced by more than one percent of the prior year’s amount of school aid,” they said, calling the legislation “practical.”

“As stated from the outset, our Delegation stands ready to work in a bipartisan manner to finally fix New Jersey’s systemically opaque and inequitable school funding formula,” the delegation said. “Frankly, we support any legislative initiative, regardless of who proposes it, if it means helping our constituents including dedicated education professionals and parents whose children deserve a world class education.”