{"id":21721,"date":"2023-03-03T16:14:09","date_gmt":"2023-03-03T21:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=21721"},"modified":"2023-03-03T16:14:09","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T21:14:09","slug":"brick-toms-river-school-officials-in-shock-over-millions-in-proposed-state-funding-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2023\/03\/brick-toms-river-school-officials-in-shock-over-millions-in-proposed-state-funding-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Brick, Toms River School Officials in Shock Over Millions in Proposed State Funding Cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Toms<\/a>

Toms River, Brick and students from 70 other districts across New Jersey attend a rally in Trenton over school funding cuts, March 5, 2019. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

School officials expressed near-disbelief while state legislators fumed with outrage over cuts to school funding proposed in Gov. Phil Murphy\u2019s annual budget, despite an increase in education spending by over $1 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis must be a mistake,\u201d described Toms River Regional Schools Superintendent Michael Citta, on his reaction to hearing the news that Trenton would slash the district\u2019s funding by a staggering $14.4 million, representing 32 percent of the district\u2019s total state funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment we are trying to quantify the irreversible damage these cuts will do to our kids in our beloved school community,\u201d said Citta. \u201cOur initial calculation had a worst-case scenario of $2.8 million in aid reduction which, in our planning, was impossible to endure and move forward. So you can imagine our reaction yesterday when we learned of the $14.4 million cut.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Brick schools will also suffer a sharp decline in state funding, to the tune of $2.54 million, representing 14.8 percent of its total funding. Other local districts to see the ax fall include Seaside Heights, which will see a $215,059 cut (representing 31 percent of its funding) and Lavallette, which will see a 3 percent cut. Lavallette received minimal state funding even before Murphy\u2019s budget was released Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Murphy\u2019s massive school aid cuts to Brick and Toms River are malicious and unnecessary when he\u2019s building a $10 billion budget surplus and putting $1 billion more into schools in other parts of the state,\u201d State Sen. James Holzapfel (R-Ocean) said. \u201cThere\u2019s absolutely no reason that schools in Ocean County or anywhere else should have their funding cut when the state is so flush with cash.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans have accused Murphy of punishing school district in Republican-leaning areas of the state in favor of increases in funding for districts in friendlier political territory.<\/p>\n

Brick school officials have already warned that staff reductions are expected<\/a> for the 2023-24 school year. The latest round of funding cuts will likely have the same effect on neighboring districts, especially Toms River. Murphy, meanwhile, touted his administration\u2019s budget as one which is set on \u201cproviding students throughout our state with the world-class education they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Brick<\/a>

Brick Township Board of Education\/Schools (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThis year\u2019s budget proposal demonstrates our ongoing commitment to working towards fully funding our schools, expanding pre-K throughout the state, growing our educator workforce, and promoting the success of our students,\u201d Murphy said in a statement, which was silent on cuts to certain districts.<\/p>\n

According to school aid data provided today by the New Jersey Department of Education, nearly half of the school districts in the 10th legislative district, representing northern and central Ocean County, would have funding reduced under the governor\u2019s budget proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIncreased funding for schools shouldn\u2019t come at the expense of other children\u2019s education,\u201d said Assemblyman Gregory P. McGuckin (R-Ocean). \u201cAll children deserve a thorough and efficient education, but Murphy\u2019s budget and funding formula picks winners and losers. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been taken from Ocean County school districts to increase funding in Democrat districts. If Murphy really wants to address the learning loss all students experienced from his draconian lockdowns, he has to fully fund all schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assemblyman John Catalano said there is \u201cnothing left for these districts to cut\u201d following a cumulative tens of millions of dollars in state funding cut over the past five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless you want classrooms without teachers, the governor\u2019s budget cuts will lead to huge property tax increases in these towns,\u201d Catalano said. \u201cIt seems crazy these harmful cuts are being proposed while Governor Murphy is building a $10 billion budget surplus that isn\u2019t helping anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

County officials have also blasted the proposed budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen this time and again,\u201d Ocean County Commissioner Joseph Vicari said. \u201cOcean County families are burdened with higher school taxes while nearly all of the state aid increases go to the cities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other local districts facing major state-aid cuts include Jackson, Lacey and Stafford townships.<\/p>\n

While Ocean County school systems will see sharp reductions in funding, state dollars will flow from Trenton to various capital projects for other districts across the state.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A row of lockers at Brick Township High School. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

The budget includes $250 million for Schools Development Authority projects, drawing from $1.9 billion appropriated to the Schools Development Authority (SDA) from the Debt Defeasance and Prevention Fund last year. The state will also add $832 million in K-12 formula aid statewide for the 2023-24 school year, though none of this funding is slated to go to local districts.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Murphy\u2019s State budgets have substantially increased investment in New Jersey schools. The proposed Fiscal Year 2024 budget continues that historic investment,\u201d said Angelica Allen-McMillan, acting state Commissioner of Education. \u201cGovernor Murphy\u2019s spending plan demonstrates the importance of strong educational systems and a commitment to the vitality of our State investment. Moreover, the Fiscal Year 2024 budget focuses on crucial initiatives that our schools, staff, and students so desperately need, ranging from high-impact tutoring to the improvement in the culture and climate of the teaching profession.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Ocean County, officials were grappling with how to absorb the funding cuts while also complying with the state\u2019s 2 percent cap on tax expenditures and levies. The state\u2019s formula, as implemented over the last five years, has found local districts\u2019 property taxes to be too low, with state funding cuts that followed. Several districts have initiated litigation over the issue, beginning with a motion that forced the state to release the funding formula, which Trenton originally argued was proprietary and should not have been made public.<\/p>\n

\u201cRest assured, however, that no stone will be left unturned as we work to resolve what is quite honestly a monumentally unrealistic reduction,\u201d said Citta. \u201cThis isn\u2019t a fiscal cliff; this is a fiscal apocalypse.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

School officials expressed near-disbelief while state legislators fumed with outrage over cuts to school funding proposed in Gov. Phil Murphy\u2019s annual budget, despite an increase in education spending by over $1 billion. \u201cThis must be a mistake,\u201d described Toms River Regional Schools Superintendent Michael Citta, on his reaction to hearing the news that Trenton would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"#Brick, #TomsRiver School Officials in Shock Over Millions in Proposed #NJ #EducationFunding #Cuts","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[4891,24,4484,2921,3412],"class_list":["post-21721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brick-schools","tag-2023-24-school-budget","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-featured","tag-phil-murphy","tag-school-funding-cut"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/sos_rally_trenton_0305_122.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-5El","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}