Central Jersey Democrats 'outraged' at local school aid funding cuts

Editor's note: This article has been updated to reflect that besides Hillsborough, the only Somerset County school district with a decrease in state aid in Gov. Phil Murphy's budget proposal is Franklin (1.8%).

Three Central Jersey Democratic state legislators have expressed "profound disappointment" that five school systems in their district are losing state aid in the budget introduced by Gov. Phil Murphy last week.

All three District 16 legislators – state Sen. Andrew Zwicker and Assemblymembers Roy Freiman and Mitchelle Drulis – said they were "disturbed" by cuts in aid to Hillsborough, South Brunswick, Lebanon Borough, High Bridge and Hunterdon Central.

“As the husband of a Hillsborough educator and parent to three children who went through the outstanding South Brunswick school system, I am outraged at the cuts both districts and others in our area learned of yesterday,” Zwicker said in a press release.

The state has proposed a 13.2% decrease in aid to Hillsborough, a $2.7 million cut. Hillsborough is one of two Somerset County school districts to lose state aid in the budget unveiled last week by Gov. Phil Murphy. Besides Hillsborough, the only Somerset County district with a decrease is Franklin (1.8%).

South Brunswick is losing 8.98% ($1.4 million), High Bridge was cut 11.98% ($89,958) and Lebanon Borough was reduced 4.7% ($7,356). Hunterdon Central was cut by .68% ($31,227).

“I was hopeful when the proposed budget included $900 million in increased funding for schools. Upon reviewing the actual numbers for the 16th legislative district, while I am pleased to see increases for many of our schools, these allocations do not offset my outrage and frustration on behalf of the school districts that will lose funding. This decrease will cause our children to lose access to teachers, interventionists, activities, and countless other imperative portions of their education,” Drulis said.

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State aid for K-12 school districts in New Jersey will rise to nearly $11.7 billion, a jump of 8.4% over the current year's aid.

In announcing the numbers Murphy said 423 school districts will get additional aid, 15 districts will receive the same amount as this year and 140 will lose some aid.

“The funding losses will be devastating to these districts," Freiman said. "We cannot continue to follow this school funding formula as it currently stands.”

Hillsborough Board of Education member Joe Davis said at the Board's Feb. 26 meeting before the state aid figures were announced that the district was facing "quite a large deficit" but Business Administrator Gerald Eckert was looking to fill in the "few million dollars" gap.

Eckert, Davis said, was going through "with a fine-tooth comb" to create a balanced budget.

"We're going to continue to advocate for fair funding," said Hillsborough Superintendent of Schools Michael Volpe, adding the school district will "find other ways to do what we need to do for kids."

Volpe said Hillsborough was able to obtain an additional $602,000 in state aid for the current school budget and the state also awarded $626,000 for repairs to the high school auditorium.

In addition, outside of the aid amounts, the state also awarded grants for repairs to the heating and cooling system at the high school, to upgrade cybersecurity and implement a grade 3 and 4 tutoring program.

"We could have said 'woe is me,' we have a budget hole, what are we going to do," Volpe said. "But we didn't take it lying down."

The three District 16 legislators have introduced a bill to allow school districts whose state aid was cut the ability to increase their 2% property tax cap.

The legislators have also called upon the state to change its formula for calculating aid.

“The formula has proven it has significant volatility year after year, which inhibits the district’s ability to plan for changes, manage programming, staffing, and deliver quality education to our students,” Freiman said.

Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com

Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Central Jersey Democrats 'outraged' at local school aid funding cuts