TRENTON, NJ – New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy touts himself as being fair an equitable, but legislators at the Jersey Shore doubt his sincerity after the governor cut tens more than hundred million dollars of state aid to school districts along the Jersey Shore.
In other words, school districts in towns where the students’ parents did not vote for Murphy in the 2021 election. Along the Jersey Shore, voters overwhelmingly supported Murphy’s opponent Jack Ciattarelli. Now, some are claiming Murphy’s 2023-24 state budget is payback.
According to the controversial school funding formula designed to enhance financial equity among New Jersey’s nearly 600 public school districts, Cape May County schools will lose another $5.6 million in state funding. Those cuts were announced at the same time last week that Governor Phil Murphy lauded his historic infusion of $832 million into his proposed $20.5 billion for public schools for special education programs and construction and maintenance projects.
Assemblymen Antwan McCllelan and Erik Simsonsen, who is an administrator in the Lower Cape May Regional School District, have opposed the current state funding formula under S2. Despite being heavily guarded by the Murphy administration and state Department of Education, the formula was the subject of a lawsuit last January, and a court ruled last January it had to be released to six Ocean and Monmouth counties whose state aid had been decimated.
Their goal is to see the Assembly Republican plan fully fund state schools to constitutionally-mandated levels of adequacy as well as lower property taxes. In a press conference held Feb. 22, Assembly Republican Leader John DiMaio, flanked by New Jersey business leaders, announced details of the plan.
“I’ve seen this said elsewhere, but the existing formula is nothing but a rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul scheme that delivers anything but funding equity. And it’s not just our students and staff who lose, but our already overburdened taxpayers who have to somehow make up for the aid shortfall,” Simsonsen (R-Cape May) said. “I’m calling on the governor and our colleagues across the aisle to stop playing politics, and do the right thing by all New Jerseyans. We can adequately fund all schools and deliver relief to businesses and homeowners.”
“To this day, the state has never provided fair funding for school districts or lowered property taxes,” McClellan (R-Cape May) said. “And the way the state is conducting business now, we never will. However, we can with this alternative.”
Cape May County is home to 18 schools, nine of which will see their state funding slashed for the FY24 school year. The most drastic cut this round will be felt by the Wildwood City School District, which is losing 53% of its state aid, from $4.1 million to $1.9 million.
“There is something systematically wrong with our funding formula if it cannot provide predictable funding as it is constitutionally required. We were already scheduled to lose $1.2 million via the multiyear reductions within S2. $2.1 million is almost double that figure, but in one year, and with no off ramp,” Wildwood City Schools Superintendent John K. Kummings said. “We are begging the state, legislature, and department of education to provide an immediate remedy as our budgets are due by March 20.”