By Assemblyman Alex Sauickie

The last week of March turned out to be “school aid week” in our state’s capital, at least for the Assembly. On Monday, the Assembly Budget Committee held an open hearing on the governor’s proposed state budget, which includes his plans for distributing – and cutting – school aid. On Wednesday, the committee held another such hearing. On Thursday, the Assembly voted on a bill to temporarily cancel two-thirds of his planned cuts in aid to schools across the state.

While it’s not very common for legislators to testify at open budget hearings, I chose to do so because the proposed cuts would significantly harm Ocean and Monmouth counties’ schools and students. Eight of the ten largest cuts in the entire state were aimed at schools in those counties, a fact I shared with the committee.

I also told the committee about the harsh impact that aid cuts would have in specific Ocean and Monmouth school districts in, and outside of, my own legislative district. I stated that four out of the top five proposed cuts in the state would result in Toms River, Asbury Park, Freehold Regional, and Jackson Township – losing a combined $35 million. That’s a whopping loss for only four districts in just a single year.

Further, I placed these cuts in perspective by observing that some school districts in other counties receive over $30,000 in state aid per student, while Jackson receives less than $4,000 and Toms River gets less than $2,000. There can be very different conditions in other school districts, but that’s a startlingly huge gap in state support for students.

Of course, not just as the district’s representative but also as the father of Jackson students, I homed in on the enormous funding problem that the Jackson district is facing. Having endured years of state aid cuts, historic inflation, the loss of COVID funding and sharply increasing student transportation costs, Jackson is now saddled with a huge budget gap approaching $20 million.

I’m told around 100 staff positions are in jeopardy, as are educational and extracurricular programs that make Jackson schools a great place for your kids and mine to learn, grow and thrive. I’m in awe of the dedicated work done so far by the school administration to minimize the impact of repeated cuts in state aid and other factors, but unfortunately their cumulative effects are leading to an unprecedented financial crunch.

By far, I wasn’t alone in impressing upon the committee the seriousness of the problems with the way the state funds education costs. I counted over 20 others signed up to testify on the issue, several of whom echoed my concerns about the state’s school funding formula, commonly known as S-2, the underfunding of student transportation aid, and other related issues.

The committee heard from more people on Wednesday of that week. About 14 folks signed up to testify on school funding matters at that hearing.

The following day, the Assembly passed a bill to reduce this year’s school aid losses by two-thirds. While it’s a one-time, short-term fix, I supported it as the best option on the table at the time. However, I also voted to support an attempt to restore all of the cuts rather than two-thirds, but the majority party defeated that motion.

I then introduced legislation to do the same. In a proposed state budget that’s grown by more than 50 percent over the last few years, we should prioritize education overspending like the proposed $12 million for a French arts museum in Jersey City and $20 million for cricket and rugby fields. Fine things I’m sure, but cutting education while spending these millions elsewhere is just wrong.

I also introduced two additional bills. One greatly expands the amount of “stabilization aid” available for the next school year, and also reestablishes “education rescue grants.” Stabilization aid can be awarded to school districts having their state aid cut or facing some other budgetary imbalance. Education rescue grants support the costs of retaining, rehiring or newly hiring experienced teachers.

The other bill is based on a recent court decision that said the state must consider the strain of state-mandated transportation costs on school budgets when determining constitutionally ad- equate state funding. The bill provides full state funding for nonpublic student transportation to districts that meet certain thresholds related to cost increases in that area.

This package, along with other bills I sponsor, is the kind of “all of the above” approach that’s needed when the state funding formula is not only faulty, but threatens our children’s quality of education. What’s really needed is a new, fair formula.

I have a bill for that, too.

Alex Sauickie is a lifelong Jackson resident who represents his hometown and 13 other towns in the State Assembly.

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Note: This opinion piece originally appeared in The Jackson Times by Jersey Shore Online in its publication dated April 8, 2023.