NJ Spotlight published the following article on March 13, 2014. To read the full article, click here.
IS RECORD-HIGH STATE AID TO SCHOOLS REALLY JUST A NUMBERS GAME?
JOHN MOONEY | MARCH 13, 2014
In touting his proposed state budget for next year, Gov. Chris Christie is quick to say that New Jersey, under his watch, is providing more state aid to public schools than at any time in history.
But while that is true for the total aid package, a new analysis by nonpartisan legislative staff finds that four out of five school districts would continue to see less state aid under the new budget than what they received in 2009-2010, when Christie took office.
Maybe more damning politically, two of three legislative districts would see their schools losing a significant amount of aid over that time, according to the analysis, including aid drops of more 20 percent in some North Jersey school districts.
The annual analysis by the Office of Legislative Services is not a big surprise. It has been a long-running point of debate, and previous analyses by OLS have found the same reality for a majority of school districts over the past several years.