By Matthew Sockol
Staff Writer
FREEHOLD – The members of the Freehold Borough K-8 School District Board of Education are seeking what they believe is the district’s fair share of state aid and to that end they are calling on state officials to properly fund the School Funding Reform Act (SFRA) of 2008.
On Jan. 9, the board passed a resolution appealing to Acting Commissioner of Education Kimberly Harrington and Gov. Chris Christie to give the school district the state aid it should be receiving under the terms of the law that was passed almost a decade ago.
According to the resolution, Freehold Borough is the third most underfunded public school district in New Jersey. The district has an $11.9 million deficit in state aid and a funding per weighted pupil of $7,111. The distribution of state aid in the district has caused borough taxpayers to pay $2.4 million more than their fair share of property taxes, according to the resolution.
Freehold Borough is currently under what is referred to as the adequacy level by $9.6 million, according to the resolution.
According to the resolution, the law contains a provision to proportionally divide available funds between school districts if full funding is not possible. The resolution states that recent apportionment of state aid since 2010 has not taken student population growth into account, that some districts are overfunded or receive an excess in state aid and that past efforts to address under adequacy in districts such as Freehold Borough has totaled $16.8 million, which is two-tenths of 1 percent of the total distribution in state school aid.
“This failure to fully fund the SFRA formula, to fairly divide available state aid or increase the amount of under adequacy aid has denied the students of Freehold Borough the resources needed for their educational success,” the resolution states.
If the law cannot be fully funded due to fiscal conditions, the board requests that the funds available for public education be fairly and proportionally divided in accordance with the SFRA formula. If full distribution is not possible, the board requests that additional monies be allocated to under adequacy aid, according to the resolution.
The board’s appeal to the governor and to the education commissioner precedes the state’s announcement of school aid amounts for 2017-18, which is part of the state’s fiscal year budget. The resolution says state leaders are currently preparing the budget.
As the 2017-18 spending plan is prepared, state legislators are seeking to address how schools are funded.
According to a press release provided by the New Jersey Assembly Majority (Democrats), the Assembly Education Committee will hold hearings on school funding as part of an effort to amend the school funding formula.
“Concerns about school funding in communities across the state have gone on far too long without being resolved,” Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson, Bergen) said in the press release. “It is unacceptable that state government has gone years without properly funding a constitutional school funding formula, hurting both children and property taxpayers.
“It is time to revisit that process, but we need input and opinions from experts and taxpayers across the state. If this was an easy fix, it would have been done a long time ago, but the Assembly is ready to start the hard work of finding a solution that is fair to taxpayers, school districts and children across the state,” Prieto said.
The first hearing will take place on Jan. 18 and the committee will hear from education experts. Three additional public hearings will be held across the state in different regions.
According to a press release from state Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth), the state Senate has created the Senate Select Committee on School Funding Fairness, which is dedicated to developing school funding reform solutions.
“School funding fairness is critical to easing the overwhelming property tax burden facing our residents,” Beck said in the press release. “We need a fair and equitable formula to best serve the educational needs of all New Jersey students, many of whom are struggling because their districts have been underfunded for years.
“New Jersey has 143 school districts that are more than 10 percent below the state adequacy standard and most have seen enrollment growth, while 215 school districts are more than 10 percent above the standard, the majority of which have seen enrollment loss.
“The school funding issue is complex,” Beck said. “Right now, we are distributing school aid with little connection to enrollment growth or loss, demographic shifts, or the fact that some districts are overfunded and not paying their fair share, while far too many are going without the funding their students need.
“Clearly, this committee must include people who have the knowledge and experience to develop comprehensive reforms so that every student, in every school district across this state, receives equal opportunities for a great education,” Beck said.
Harrington, the acting education commissioner, will visit the Freehold Borough School District on Feb. 6, according to Superintendent of Schools Rocco Tomazic.
