Who wins or loses in NJ school-funding compromise? Find out here
TRENTON — If the school-funding compromise struck by Democratic legislative leaders gets enacted, 379 districts would share $146 million in additional aid for the school year that starts in September but 126 others would lose $46 million.
District-level details of the compromise struck Wednesday were made public Thursday morning. It wouldn’t change aid for the coming year for 74 districts – but would mean aid increases of 10 percent or more for 70 districts, and aid reductions of 5 percent or more for 50 districts.
Those changes reflect proposed differences from what districts were promised in early March, when the state Department of Education sent aid notices shortly after Christie proposed the budget in a speech to the Legislature. Districts have adopted budgets based on those figures.
The changes would require the agreement of Gov. Chris Christie, who had asked lawmakers to come up with a school-funding fix by early June but isn’t yet convinced of the merits of the current plan.
“The governor is willing to consider the proposal but he has some concerns about fairness,” said spokesman Brian Murray.
In terms of dollars, not percentages, here are the biggest winners and losers:
Districts that would see aid increase by $1M or more:
| County | District | Increase |
| Union | Elizabeth City | $7,513,407 |
| Essex | Newark City | $7,495,222 |
| Atlantic | Atlantic City | $6,063,679 |
| Middlesex | Woodbridge Twp | $5,667,485 |
| Passaic | Paterson City | $4,803,169 |
| Passaic | Clifton City | $3,890,616 |
| Middlesex | New Brunswick City | $3,305,069 |
| Hudson | Bayonne City | $3,245,696 |
| Middlesex | North Brunswick Twp | $3,087,935 |
| Cumberland | Bridgeton City | $2,502,702 |
| Union | Plainfield City | $2,476,382 |
| Hudson | Kearny Town | $2,452,383 |
| Hudson | Union City | $2,379,702 |
| Bergen | Hackensack City | $2,248,735 |
| Essex | Bloomfield Twp | $2,196,545 |
| Union | Linden City | $2,069,473 |
| Passaic | Passaic County Vocational | $2,039,360 |
| Mercer | Trenton City | $1,967,835 |
| Bergen | Elmwood Park | $1,803,123 |
| Somerset | Bound Brook Boro | $1,731,843 |
| Hudson | West New York Town | $1,707,228 |
| Passaic | Passaic City | $1,706,122 |
| Essex | West Orange Town | $1,682,789 |
| Middlesex | Edison Twp | $1,630,364 |
| Atlantic | Egg Harbor Twp | $1,626,958 |
| Mercer | East Windsor Regional | $1,620,608 |
| Bergen | Lodi Borough | $1,445,661 |
| Atlantic | Atlantic Co Vocational | $1,387,398 |
| Hudson | North Bergen Twp | $1,374,173 |
| Bergen | Fairview Boro | $1,356,718 |
| Morris | Dover Town | $1,332,660 |
| Essex | City Of Orange Twp | $1,318,095 |
| Camden | Cherry Hill Twp | $1,143,421 |
| Essex | Belleville Town | $1,135,837 |
| Middlesex | Sayreville Boro | $1,118,630 |
| Bergen | Ridgefield Park Twp | $1,115,355 |
| Middlesex | Piscataway Twp | $1,114,013 |
| Monmouth | Freehold Boro | $1,069,861 |
| Middlesex | Perth Amboy City | $1,057,522 |
| Somerset | North Plainfield Boro | $1,053,432 |
| Camden | Lindenwold Boro | $1,042,802 |
| Gloucester | Monroe Twp | $1,009,216 |
Districts that would see aid drop by $1M or more:
| County | District | Reduction |
| Hudson | Jersey City | $8,545,482 |
| Ocean | Toms River Regional | $3,324,453 |
| Essex | East Orange | $3,138,697 |
| Ocean | Brick Twp | $2,162,713 |
| Gloucester | Washington Twp | $2,069,211 |
| Cumberland | Vineland City | $2,059,792 |
| Burlington | Pemberton Twp | $1,604,604 |
| Monmouth | Neptune Twp | $1,302,322 |
| Monmouth | Manalapan-Englishtown Reg | $1,249,210 |
| Monmouth | Middletown Twp | $1,179,200 |
See full list of school districts — scroll to end of article.
The drop in Jersey City would be $8.5 million – which amounts to a 2 percent cut in state aid. The reduction is Toms River would be $3.3 million, a close to 5 percent drop in state aid.
Elizabeth and Newark gain the most money under the plan, roughly $7.5 million each, followed by Atlantic City at $6 million and Woodbridge at $5.7 million. For 11 districts, the changes would boost state financial support by more than 25 percent.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said school funding is one of the most important things the Legislature needs to focus on.
“This is step one, and we said this was going to be a multiple step process to get to full funding,” Sweeney said. “Step one was to start getting the formula back into play.”
Step two, presuming Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Murphy wins in November, is a hike in income taxes for rich.
“Next year, January, and we will do it when the new governor is sworn in, the day the new governor is sworn in, we will put up a millionaires tax. It will generate a minimum of $600 million” and bring every district in the state over 70 percent of full formula funding, Sweeney said.
“It’s a process. It’s going to take time. But in two years, we are going to really make an enormous amount of progress. So for me, this is the beginning,” Sweeney said. “… We’ve said it’s going to take five years. It might take seven years. But we absolutely can fully fund the formula, and we will fully fund the formula.”
The school-aid changes planned by legislative leaders would also add $25 million for preschool programs, focused on districts with higher concentrations of poverty that don’t qualify for the full-day preschool funded to comply with state Supreme Court rulings.
The distribution of that aid isn’t reflected in the district-level breakdowns, as it would be determined later based on competitive bidding by the eligible districts.
Who wins or loses?
New Jersey: Decoded cuts through the cruft and gets to what matters in New Jersey news and politics. Follow on Facebook and Twitter.
Michael Symons is State House bureau chief for New Jersey 101.5 and the editor of New Jersey: Decoded. Follow @NJDecoded on Twitter and Facebook. Contact him at michael.symons@townsquaremedia.com
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