TRENTON, NJ – Weeks after New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy told local school districts to start shutting down and selling off their schools to make ends meet, the Department of Education had another message for struggling districts.
Cancel sports programs.
That’s according to local assemblyman Alex Sauickie, who has been unsuccessful in getting a sympathetic ear in Trenton to listen to the plight of local school districts now millions of dollars in the red due to Murphy’s flawed S2 funding formula.
“When I met with [the state Department of Education] last week, I met with six of them total, I said, ‘What tools do we have? You’re the DOE…What can you offer them?’” Sauickie (R-Ocean) said. “The response was ‘they may have to make hard decisions like cut more sports teams. They may have to cut more positions.’”
Sauickie, using Jackson Township as an example said cutting all sports would save $1 million. The district is now in a $30 million budget hole.
Even if Jackson cut all its sports teams, that would save only $1 million, Sauickie added. And with a 30-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio already in its two high schools, the district would have to cut 250 teaching jobs at minimum to close that $30 million gap, skyrocketing ratios 50-to-1 on average.