Schools
Brick Schools To March On Trenton Over State Aid Cuts
The march is expected to include people from districts all over the state facing severe aid cuts under S2.
BRICK, NJ — The Brick Township School District will be joining dozens of others around New Jersey that are planning to march on Trenton to protest state aid cuts.
The march, set for Tuesday, March 5, is being spearheaded by the Toms River Regional School District in concert with the Support Our Schools coalition, a group of more than 70 schools fighting against the state aid cuts mandated under S2. Brick Township Superintendent Gerald Dalton announced the plans to participate in the march at Thursday night's Board of Education meeting.
The march to the Statehouse is scheduled for the same day Gov. Phil Murphy is set to give his budget address, where districts will get a first look at his state aid proposals for the 2019-2020 school year.
Find out what's happening in Brickfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The Brick school district stands to lose cumulatively $42 million in aid under S2, which was pushed through by Senate President Stephen Sweeney and signed by Murphy last July, on the premise that Brick — and the 100 other districts that will be cut — are overfunded and that its taxpayers are not paying their fair share of the burden.
The Brick schools — along with their neighbors in Toms River — are suing the state Department of Education over its distribution of $6.3 billion in equalization aid, saying the formula the state uses has fatal flaws. The state Department of Education has refused to release the formula, insisting that it is "proprietary information," officials involved with the aid fight have said.
Find out what's happening in Brickfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The lawsuit was filed in January; Dalton on Thursday night said the attorneys handling the case have filed a motion to expedite hearings in the case because of the short time frame to finalize budgets for 2019-2020. Brick is expected to lose $2.7 million in aid for 2019-2020.
Dalton said information on the march will be distributed through the schools after the Presidents Day holiday.
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