NJ State Senate Holds Hearing On School Funding In Gloucester County

by KYW's David Madden

WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP, NJ (CBS) -- A New Jersey state senate committee traveled to Gloucester County to hear from school districts and taxpayers alike about inequities in the way school districts are funded.

Kingsway Regional High School has complained for years about the current funding system, which was supposedly reformed. Only Board President James Mueller says his district has been underfunded to the tune of 11 million dollars a year for some time now, and is facing a 2 million dollar deficit.

"This community is one of the fastest growing areas in the country, has been for a number of years and the underfunding has to stop," Mueller told KYW Newsradio.

He notes there are other districts not far away overfunded under the same formula. For example, Washington Township's schools in Gloucester County are given 141% of uncapped state funding compared to 43% for Kingsway Regional.

The problem? Legislators approved a "hold harmless" provision that allowed those overfunded districts to avoid cuts over time. The senate, assembly and the Governor all have dueling proposals to provide equity with little discussion between them.

For its part, the teachers union sees more money, not reallocation, as the answer.

"At this point, because it's been so underfunded, the adjustment aid is going to have to be done over a gradual amount of time which everyone is interested in doing," NJEA Vice President Marie Blistan said outside the hearing.

Kingsway Regional is not waiting for legislators to act.

The district on Friday filed suit, asking for the New Jersey Supreme Court to intervene. Mueller said the suit asks the court to "take a look at the fair funding model and come back to us and hopefully either make a ruling on it that it's unconstitutional or push it back to the legislature to get them to act."