The Bayonne School district is not accustomed to good news, but here is some: under a newly proposed funding formula agreed to by leaders of the General Assembly and Senate, Bayonne would receive six percent more than what Gov. Christopher Christie proposed in his “Fairness Formula,” amounting to about $3.2 million.
Statewide, the new funding formula would increase state funding by $125 million, with $25 million allocated to expand pre-k and kindergarten. Not all municipalities in Hudson County will benefit, though. Jersey City would see a two percent reduction, or about $8.5 million.In hearings that led up to the bicameral agreement, Bayonne administrators made the case for equitable funding across all districts, citing Jersey City receiving eight times more in state funding than Bayonne, with three times as many students, as a case in point.
Hoboken would also lose out, to the tune of a 7.7 percent decrease, or about $825,000, while Weehawken funding would decrease by about the same percentage.
“This is the type of compromise the Assembly was looking for,” said Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto. “One that does not hurt children while providing immediate relief to the most troubled school districts, beginning the work of fairly adjusting school aid and making a major investment in preschool education.”
The body politick that cried wolf
“When I see the money in the bank I’ll believe it a little better. I’ve seen things go wrong before,” said Bayonne Board of Education (BBOED) President Joseph Broderick. The district is steeped in a $6 million budget deficit, resulting in hundreds of layoffs over the past few months. But for nearly a decade straight, Bayonne has received about $10 million less annually than what they the current formula calculates.
“But I’m certainly hopeful. It would be terrific, how much it would help,” Broderick said. “It would take care of some holes that we have right now.”
The school district is short many educators as a result of the layoffs. Board trustees and administrators have said they plan on hiring back as many as possible. According to Broderick, a new influx of funding may enable the school to do just that.
“As soon as we know [if the legislation passes], then we’ll start working on how to use that money,” Broderick said.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney, who brokered the deal with Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, visited Bayonne High School before the Board of Ed’s fiscal crisis in May of 2016. He said he hoped for an increase of about $50 million in state aid, a far cry from what Bayonne would have received if the state had funded the formula, and from the $3.2 million it might receive in the most recent formula.
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“When I see the money in the bank I’ll believe it a little better. I’ve seen things go wrong before.” – BBOED President Joseph Broderick
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What’s passed is past
The School Funding Reform Act (the current funding formula)was signed into law by Christie in 2008 with much praise from both sides of the aisle. However, since it passed in 2008, funding has largely been flat. NJ is heavily reliant on local property tax revenue to fund its schools, more so than in most other states – a system that strains budgets of cities that are increasingly unable to make ends meet using property tax revenue.
Only the first year of the formula, 2010, was fully funded until Christie, confronted with a budget gap when he took office in 2010, slashed $1.1 billion in state aid to schools. After a lawsuit, the Christie Administration returned $500 million in state aid, but only to the 31 Abbott districts, which do not include Bayonne.
Christie’s proposed “Fairness Formula” from last year would have done away with increased state aid for districts with high concentrations of poor student and English language learners, generally resulting in less funding for urban districts and more for suburban districts. Christie’s political capital is razor thin now. He’s a lame duck governor with the lowest approval ratings of any governor in the country, partly because of public education funding issue.
If the Bayonne School District gets more funding, it would be a huge reprieve for the City, whose budget is smaller than that of the school’s, and for taxpayers. In April, the school district levied a 5.6 percent property tax increase to help pay for the deficit. NJ consistently ranks highest in property taxes in the country.
Disparities in communities’ abilities to collect enough property tax revenue and in school operating costs makes any formula imperfect, so the NJ Department of Education issues state aid to make up the difference. The problem, according to Bayonne administrators, is that the state is not funding its current formula, which would have provided Bayonne an additional $10 million annually.
Rory Pasquariello may be reached at roryp@hudsonreporter.com.
