Toms River Phone, Email Blitz Urged Over S2 School Aid Cuts

TOMS RIVER, NJ — With the Toms River Regional Schools working to find a way to close a $4.3 million gap caused by an anticipated state aid cut in the 2020-2021 school year, the district is rallying to fight back.

Parents and residents in the regional school district's four towns — Toms River, South Toms River, Beachwood and Pine Beach — are being urged to email and call Gov. Phil Murphy to urge him to pause the aid cuts under S2, the law he signed in 2017 that eliminates so-called adjustment aid that was part of the 2008 School Funding Reform Act.

Murphy is scheduled to deliver the 2021 budget address at 2 p.m. Tuesday.

Toms River —and dozens of other districts — had been receiving the adjustment aid since 2008. Those backing the S2 cuts say the aid was supposed to be taken away long ago, and contend Toms River Regional residents are not paying their fair share of property taxes to support the schools. The cuts would have a cumulative impact of more than $70 million, district officials have said.

The insistence that Toms River taxpayers are not paying their fair share of property taxes to support their schools is based on a formula that the state uses to determine each district's "local fair share."

The state Department of Education has refused to release the formula, despite repeated Open Public Records Act requests. A request submitted in late January by 58 school districts again requesting the particulars of the formula, including the wealth calculation, was rejected on the basis that the formula is proprietary. Read more: Toms River, Brick Seek 'Secret' Math Equation In School Aid Fight

Districts that are part of the Support Our Schools coalition, including Toms River — districts taking deep cuts as a result of S2 — have asked the state to suspend the implementation of S2 and to reexamine the elements of the formula.

"We ask that the timeline of S2 be extended until the full impact of its associated funding cuts is fully understood, and that the phasing in of state aid to chronically-underfunded districts continues on the current timeline established by the bill," the SOS coalition tweeted.

Part of that is because the S2 cuts — and the 2 percent state cap on school property tax levy increases — will push Toms River further from the adequacy figure the state Department of Education says is the minimum spending per student needed to provide a thorough and efficient education.

Toms River spends nearly $2,500 less per student than what the state says is necessary to provide a thorough-and-efficient education and is $4,000 less than the state average in per-student spending, one of the lowest among districts of 3,500 students or more.

Senate President Stephen Sweeney, who pushed through S2 to force the removal of adjustment aid, has said he is willing to reexamine the formula but has not put a timetable on when that might happen.

The Toms River school district posted information on its website for parents calling or emailing Murphy, stressing the issue isn't taking funds away from districts that have increased enrollment, but that cutting districts like Toms River will undermine the education of thousands of students.

"The manner in which S2 is presently constructed is not the answer," the district's information for parents says. "A plan must be implemented that ensures all 1.4 million children in New Jersey have access to equitable educational opportunities."

"New Jersey is ranked N0. 1 in the nation for public education. That ranking will not last if school districts must dismantle educational programming and cut staff due to the negative impact of S2. The end result will be catastrophic for our children."

Here is the contact information:
Governor's Office phone number: 1-609-292-6000
E-Mail Link: https://nj.gov/governor/contact/
E-Mail: constituent.relations@nj.gov

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