An Article written by Joel Shain, Esq. who is the League's Special Utility Counsel:
An article written by Scotch Plains Mayor Nancy Malool and Fanwood Mayor Colleen Mahr:
Governor Christie has proposed a reduction in state aid to schools in the amount of 7.4% statewide. However, not all school districts, in his eyes, are equal. Riverdale will be losing 83.2% in aid ($321,000). In addition to that Christie is "taxing" the school construction grant we received eight years ago to the tune of $20,204! Overall, Riverdale will lose $341,204 (88.4%) for the coming school year. That will result in a four point tax increase to stay even.
"...the proposed state aid figure [for Asbury Park] is $67,630,888. That's a lot of dough. But maybe they have a lot of kids..It turns out that Asbury Park had a mere 2,202 pupils in the last year for which figures are available. Now let's do the math. Wow! That's a per-pupil state aid figure of $30,727 annually. Yikes!"
Governor Christie's Education Commissioner, Bret Schundler, the former mayor of Jersey City, devised the formula determining how much state aid will be lost by each school district. Is it any wonder that..."As for Jersey City, it will still get $449 million next year, more than all the school districts in Bergen, Morris, Hunterdon, Cape May and Somerset counties combined."!!!
We recently received the method behind the State's formula for determining how the municipal aid is established.