School Funding in New Jersey

STATEWIDE FUNDING ANALYSES

• FY19 NJ School Funding Database (Greene, 2018)

• FY19 NJ School Funding Database by Legislative District (Greene, 2018)

• State Aid Changes by District from FY19 to FY20 (Education Law Center, 2019)

• New Jersey's School Funding Reform Act at 10 Years (Baker & Weber, 2019)

Archives

• FY18 NJ School Funding Database
• FY18 NJ School Funding Database by Legislative District 
• FY17 NJ School Funding Database
• FY16 NJ School Funding Database 

IMPORTANT NEWS

• NJ.com: Don't rethink school funding cuts. Help districts cope (4/28/19)
• NJ Spotlight: Education coalition urges governor, dems to rethink school funding cuts (4/23/19)
• NJ Spotlight: Spelling out how school funding formula needs to be overhauled (3/15/19)
• NJ.com: Three cheers for Murphy's school funding (3/10/19)
• NJ Herald: Sussex County schools to lose $5.3 million in state aid (3/9/19)
• NJ Insider: Governor Murphy announces historic levels of school funding... (3/8/19)
• NJ Spotlight: Details of what budget means for New Jersey's schools (3/6/19)

KEY RESOURCES

• Fair Funding Action Committee on Twitter
• Our Fair Share NJ on Twitter
• NJ Education Aid Blog by Jeffrey Bennett
• NJ School Funding News by Education Law Center

AN OVERVIEW OF STATE AID INEQUITY IN NEW JERSEY

Much of this brief overview is excerpted from Shortchanging New Jersey's Students (Education Law Center, July 2014)

In 2008, the New Jersey Legislature enacted the first student-based, weighted formula to distribute state aid to schools called the School Funding Reform Act (SFRA).  It is driven by determinations of the cost of resources for all students to achieve the state’s academic standards. The formula delivers weighted funding based on the number of enrolled students who are disabled, and/or economically disadvantaged, and/or limited-English proficient.

The formula establishes an “adequacy budget” for each school district that reflects the size, grade configuration, and demographic characteristics of the student population based on weighted enrollment. It represents the cost of delivering academic standards to all students based on the formula’s parameters. The adequacy budget is funded through a combination of local taxes and state aid, based on calculations of a municipality’s ability to pay. 

The SFRA has been consistently underfunded since its inception. The Governor proposed and the Legislature adopted a budget for FY11 that cut over $1.1 billion, or almost 15%, in state aid from the SFRA formula. Subsequent budgets failed to properly implement the law, providing minimal and unpredictable state aid increases.

In FY18 and FY19, the Governor and Legislature agreed to appropriate significant funding to the formula and distribute it to the most underaided districts. In August 2019, Governor Murphy signed S-2 after passage in the Senate and Assembly, led by Senate President Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Coughlin, respectively. S-2 modernized SFRA by removing growth caps for FY20 and setting adjustment aid on a six year path to sunset.

THREE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS TO ASK

1. DOES YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT SPEND AT OR ABOVE ITS ADEQUACY BUDGET ?

2. DOES YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT RECEIVE ITS FAIR SHARE OF STATE AID ?

3. DOES YOUR MUNICIPALITY PROVIDE ITS FAIR SHARE OF LOCAL TAXES ?

For the answers to these questions, access the statewide database of all 591 NJ school districts for Fiscal Year 2019 with sheets sorted by these criteria:

State Aid Ratio (percentage of uncapped SFRA aid received)

Tax Levy Ratio (percentage of local fair share contributed)

Budget Adequacy Ratio (percentage of adequacy budget spent)

Funding Fairness Index (a single metric illustrating funding equity)

The data is also sorted for each of NJ's 40 Legislative Districts.

The NEWTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS and FAIR FUNDING

The State of New Jersey has underaided school districts for over four decades dating back to the enactment of the state income tax in 1976, which never achieved its objective of providing state aid to schools in an equitable manner. Since 2015, the Newton Public Schools have been a statewide leader in advocating for fair funding.  These efforts culminated in the 2018 passage of S-2, setting the State on a sustainable path to school funding equity.

• NJ Senate President Steve Sweeney: New school funding law aids schoolchildren, taxpayers (7/29/18)
• NJ Spotlight: Big changes to school funding in NJ as fragile alliance holds (7/25/18)
• Insider NJ: Sweeney’s school funding reform plan becomes law (7/24/18)
• Insider NJ: Governor Phil Murphy signs historic legislation to modernize and equitably distribute school funding in New Jersey (7/24/18)
• YouTube video of signing ceremony for legislation on school funding (7/24/18)
• NJTV: Murphy signs law to ‘modernize’ school funding formula (7/24/18)
• NJ.com: N.J.'s school funding fight ends in 'big win' for kids -- but it won't come cheap (7/24/18)
• Newton School District anticipating additional aid (7/17/18)
• Dr. Greene's blog: A sustainable path to school funding equity (6/1/18)
• Testimony before the Assembly Budget Committee (4/9/18)
• Testimony before the Senate Budget Committee (3/29/18)
• Dr. Greene's blog: NJ needs school funding equity now (2/13/18)
• Newton leads 14 school districts and municipalities to file school funding petition. See coverage from NJ.com, Politico, NJ Herald, Tap into Newton, Burlington County Times, and mycentraljersey.com (1/12/18 - 1/15/18)
• Newton Board of Education and Town Council agree to file joint lawsuit against state for school funding equity (12/4/17)
• Dr. Greene's blog: New NJ school funding database shows increased fairness in FY18 (10/19/17) 
• Why some N.J. districts could lower tax rates at the 11th hour (7/20/17)
• Newton Board of Education declares intent to provide any additional state aid as tax relief (6/28/17)
• Dr. Greene's blog: A significant step on a sustainable path toward equity in school funding for NJ (6/15/17)
• Press release on legislative school aid announcement (6/15/17)
• Proposal: Significant steps on a sustainable path toward school funding equity for NJ (5/26/17)
• NJSBA Legislative Panel on school funding (5/25/17)
• Newton schools demand fair funding in Trenton (5/3/17)
• WMBC-TV interview on school funding (2/24/17)
• Dr. Greene's blog: Solving NJ's school funding problem now (2/9/17)
• Testimony before the Senate Select Committee on School Funding Fairness (2/2/17)
• Testimony before the Assembly Education Committee (1/18/17)
• Testimony before the Joint Committee on the Public Schools (1/17/17)
• Board of Education resolution on funding fairness (1/27/17)
• Dr. Greene's blog: The Funding Fairness Index (6/16/16)
• Press conference to announce the State School Aid Funding Fairness Commission Bill (6/9/16)
• Dr. Greene's blog: Property valuations and the link to school funding (5/24/16)
• Dr. Greene's blog: The 50 most underfunded school districts in New Jersey (5/4/16)
• Letter to all NJ legislators on school funding inequity (4/11/16)
• Testimony before the Assembly Budget Committee (3/21/16)
• Meeting with NJDOE officials on school funding concerns (2/1/16)
• NJASA On Target: The State Aid Dilemma (December 2015/January 2016)
• Public presentation on basic fairness in state aid distribution (12/7/15)
• Dr. Greene's blog: Fair funding for our schools (11/12/15)

The Education Law Center maintains data on each NJ school district's funding situation, including the following graphic on the Newton Public Schools for FY19: