At Mayors Meeting, Brick's Ducey Presses Sweeney On School Aid

BRICK, NJ — When New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney spoke to the Ocean County Mayors Association, Brick Township Mayor John Ducey took the opportunity to press the question that has been asked repeatedly over the last several months: Where is the school funding formula?

He got a surprising answer.

Sweeney told the mayors association that he does not have the formula that's used to determine each school district's local fair share — the amount each district is expected to tax its property owners to support the schools — and that the Department of Education has refused to provide it to him.

However, he told Ducey his staff had "reconstructed" the formula based on past years' funding and would give that to Ducey. The exchange was confirmed by two others who were in the mayors association meeting while Sweeney was speaking.

The funding formula — specifically the part being used to determine a district's local fair share — has become the flashpoint in the battle over the state's cuts to so-called adjustment aid that Brick, Toms River and a number of other districts are receiving.

The Brick Township Schools are anticipating a cut of $4.3 million for the 2020-2021 school year, part of what is scheduled to be a $22 million cut over the seven years of cuts under S2, the 2018 law that amended the School Funding Reform Act of 2008 to remove the aid.

The education department has repeatedly rejected Open Public Records Act requests from the Brick Township School District and six other districts involved in a lawsuit against the department. OPRA requests from media outlets, from the New Jersey School Boards Association and from more than two dozen residents via the OPRA Machine website all have been turned down. Read more: Toms River, Brick Seek 'Secret' Math Equation In School Aid Fight

The fight over the local fair share calculation and the drastic cuts that Brick and Toms River — as well as other districts — are facing has led to Sweeney pushing a bill that would give districts the ability to exceed the state's 2 percent cap on property tax levy increases.

In Brick, the cuts have led to plans to shut down Herbertsville Elementary School along with additional cuts to staff; Brick cut 44 staff members in 2019-2020 and had made cuts in 2018-19 as well. The cuts already have pushed some classes to 30 students, the district said at its December school board meeting.

Simply increasing the property tax levy isn't a solution, Brick school district officials have said, because it would need to increase 19 percent to make up for the $22 million in aid cuts. That figure won't stave off serious cuts because the 19 percent only would cover the cuts; it wouldn't address other costs that rise due to the cost of living, including health insurance.

Ducey in December said the town is not a wealthy community despite the expensive properties on the barrier island; more than 30 percent of the town's residents are senior citizens, many living on limited income.

"Brick is a blue-collar town," Ducey said in December. "We don't have millionaires all over Brick but they think we do."

Ducey said Sweeney on Tuesday said it's possible the formula could be revisited — a suggestion Sweeney made while speaking to the Delegate Assembly of the New Jersey School Boards Association in November.

However, there has been no timeline given for that possibility. An email to Sweeney's office requesting comment on that issue was not answered Thursday.

According to a report by News 12 New Jersey, Sweeney told the mayors association that towns getting the cuts now "relied on the state’s overfunding so they could go around saying, ‘Look, we didn’t raise taxes. Look, what great government we are, we didn’t raise taxes.’ Elected officials love to say that."

Both Brick and Toms River officials have pointed out repeatedly that the districts tax less because they spend less. Toms River has been in the bottom five on per-pupil spending, nearly $4,000 below the education department's adequacy number per student. Brick is under the adequacy amount by more than $2,000 per student.

In December, Ducey railed against the state's refusal to release the funding formula illegal and labeled the formula fake. "Government has to be transparent," he said.

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