State Increases Aid to School Districts Once More

Every school district in the State of New Jersey will receive additional aid, in addition to the aid it previously announced each district would receive, Gov. Chris Christie's office said on Tuesday. That means the total amount of state aid the Galloway Township School District will receive in 2011-12 is $1,133,866, up from the $21,140,618 it received during the 2010-11 school year.  It was previously announced that the district would receive an increase of $566,943, but that increase was doubled on Tuesday. Without the additional aid, Galloway would've received $21,707,561 in state aid. “This year, New Jersey increased state aid to school districts by $850 million over last year, restoring every dollar of the cuts we were forced to make last year and increasing aid by an additional $30 million. We are keeping faith with our commitment to New Jersey’s children and families, spending more money per pupil on New Jersey’s students than almost any other state in the country,” Gov. Christie said. “Now is the time to complement the dollars spent with real education reform to bring a focus on student learning, accountability and results.” When reached for comment, Superintendent of Schools Annette Giaquinto stated she couldn't be specific on how the money will be used because no guidelines had been issued by the state. She added they are expected "sometime soon." "Our focus will be support of district goals," Giaquinto said. Galloway's school budget was passed after council mandated more than $362,000 in cuts to a proposed $53 million budget with the provision that courtesy busing for the Arthur Rann Elementary School not be cut. Parents of children who play middle school sports were hopeful those sports could be reinstated after a one-year hiatus. Baseball and softball were the only middle school sports played this year, after the parents of those players raised the money to fund the teams.