Toms River Regional Schools Facing $4.3M State Aid Cut For '22-23

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The Toms River Regional School District will have its state school funding cut by more than $4. million for the 2022-23 school year, under state aid figures released by the state Department of Education.

Toms River Regional is among about 200 school districts whose aid is being reduced under Gov. Phil Murphy's proposed Fiscal Year 2023 budget.

Murphy's administration proposed $9.2 billion for New Jersey pre-K to 12 schools, including an additional $649.8 million for K-12 aid to put K-12 "formula" aid at $9.92 billion.

Toms River is slated to receive $45,400,653 in aid for 2022-23, a reduction of $4,324,313 from the $49.7 million the district received in 2021-22, because of the ongoing cuts under S2, which is in the fifth year of seven years of cuts.

The cut comes after the district received $7.6 million in stabilization aid in the fall because of the impact of previous cuts and of mitigation measures because of the pandemic.

Toms River and other school districts are still waiting for the state Department of Education to turn over the data and formula codes that go with the algorithm the state says is used to determine the aid distribution.

The education department was ordered to turn over the data and codes in a January ruling by a state judge, who has granted the state extra time to fulfill the Open Public Records Act request that the judge ruled had been unlawfully denied, the Asbury Park Press reported.

The data and codes are needed to check to see if the state's math on state aid is correct, officials have said.

For the Toms River Regional Schools, S2 also includes a provision requiring the district to raise its tax levy by 2 percent, the maximum allowable increase in the levy, because the district is "under adequacy," meaning it is not spending as much money per student as the state education department says is necessary to provide a thorough and efficient education.

Toms River Regional Schools officials have scheduled a public presentation on the budget for 6 p.m on March 30.

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