Toms River Schools Hit With $14.4M State Aid Cut For 2023-24

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The Toms River Regional School District is set to lose $14.4 million in state aid — a reduction of nearly 32 percent — under aid figures for the 2023-24 school year announced by the New Jersey Department of Education on Thursday.

The aid cut is the largest, percentage-wise, dealt to any district that received at least $10 million in state aid for the 2022-23 school year, according to the state figures, and second only to the Jersey City School District in total dollars being cut.

The Toms River Regional district received $45,400,683 in the 2022-23 school year, and is slated to receive $30,978,802 for 2023-24, a reduction of $14,421,851.

The aid cut, part of the ongoing cuts set out under S2, was nearly five times the amount the district was anticipating losing, which was estimated at about $2.8 million through the New Jersey Association of School Business Administrators calculations, said William Doering, the Toms River Regional schools' business administrator.

District officials did not comment on the size of the aid reduction on Thursday.

The cut comes as Gov. Phil Murphy touted a $1 billion increase in overall school funding in his 2024 budget address on Tuesday. Much of that funding has been directed at what Murphy said are underfunded school districts.

Toms River has been one of more than 150 school districts that have been subjected to state aid cuts since 2018 under the law known as S2, which aimed to remove aid from districts considered to be "overfunded" under the School Funding Reform Act.

The cuts were to be spread over seven years; the final year of cuts is slated to be the 2024-25 school year.

Assemblymen Greg McGuckin of the 10th District criticized the cuts, saying, "Murphy touts his historic school funding, but it is costing 30 percent of New Jersey’s schools millions of dollars a year."

"Toms River, the largest suburban school district in the state, has lost over 100 million in state aid in just five years. ... It is not sustainable," he said.

"All children deserve a thorough and efficient education, but Murphy’s budget and funding formula picks winners and losers," McGuckin said. "Increased funding for schools shouldn’t come at the expense of other children’s education."