TOMS RIVER, NJ—For decades, Toms River has had three high schools: Toms River North, Toms River South, and Toms River East. Those schools saw the population grow from about 60,000 to nearly 100,000. Governor Murphy now says Toms River and other districts losing state aid should just start closing their schools.
This comes after the governor touted that ‘No schools should close’ in New Jersey. In Toms River, this would also mean closing one of its three intermediate schools.
“You got three high schools, you should have two. You have five middle schools, you should have four. Those are hard discussions to have inside of a community, and I get that,” the governor said.
Murphy admitted in an interview that Toms River’s school district is being penalized because it lacks a large industry and a dense population.
He said, “Communities that don’t have large industries, large corporations, or a high population of homeowners.”
Closing those schools would increase class sizes in the remaining schools by as much as 25% and would cost hundreds of teaching jobs.
Murphy blamed the Toms River School District’s financial woes on former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, saying Christie underfunded education in New Jersey by $9 billion. Now funding across the state is up, but school districts in rural communities like Toms River and Jackson Township are facing devastating aid cuts each year since Murphy ‘fixed’ the school funding formula.