Belmar School District Needs Money, Report Says

New Jersey still doesn't have enough money for schools – and that means at least 166 of them may need to find more. Belmar is one of them.

That's because 166 New Jersey school districts that serve more than 662,000, or almost half of all students statewide, are funded below “adequacy” under the state’s weighted student funding formula – the School Funding Reform Act, according a report from the Education Law Center.

That's actually a 2008 state law that school districts and New Jersey officials are supposed to follow. And it's the law that state lawmakers have said will force local property tax hikes if the Murphy administration and state Legislature don't come up with the money to help school districts.

Belmar's funding gap is $340,660, according to the report.

The debate over school funding has helped drive a wedge between the Murphy administration and Senate President Steve Sweeney, who has insisted that New Jersey should do whatever it takes to comply with the 2008 law. Read more: These 190-Plus Districts May Face Tax Hike: NJ School Aid Figures

In total, these 166 districts are below adequacy by almost $2 billion in state and local funding, or $3,017 per pupil, according to the report from the nonprofit Education Law Center.

Education Law Center serves as a leading voice for New Jersey’s public schools, and has helped drive efforts to equalize school funding that have been endorsed by the courts.

The ELC has updated its analysis of district funding relative to the state law's adequacy levels based on 2018-19 data. The update shows a drop in the number of below-adequacy districts from 185 in 2017-18 to 166 districts in the current year.

The drop reflects the impact of a $351 million increase in state aid in the FY19 state budget, the first significant increase after eight years of aid cuts under former Gov. Chris Christie, and a $383 million increase in the local levy to support school budgets.

ELC’s analysis shows that the 166 districts are below adequacy as a result of gaps in state aid or local property tax revenue – or a combination of both – as calculated by state law.

Twenty-eight districts are below adequacy because of local revenue gaps, while 74 are below because of state aid gaps, and another 64 are below because of a combination of state and local revenue gaps, the report says.

Read more here: 166 NJ School Districts Need Money – And May Need To Tax: Report