An Assembly Committee advanced legislation on Monday to overhaul portions of New Jersey's school funding process by requiring earlier aid notifications to districts, greater transparency through a new public data portal, and more time for school districts to adjust their budgets.
NJBIA Vice President of Government Affairs Althea D. Ford testified that the bill was a step in the right direction toward stabilizing public school funding and that amendments made Monday appear to correct inconsistencies NJBIA had been concerned about in the original bill relating to averaging district incomes and property values for the funding formula.
“We appreciate the intention of the bill and some parts of the legislation,” Ford testified. “We were very concerned about some of the inconsistencies in it, which I think in the amendments that we recently received, attempt to address,” Ford said.
“If we're looking at averaging, whether it's district income or property values, we're supportive of that concept,” Ford said. “But in the original language, for some the average was over five years, for some four years, for some three years, and that was inconsistent.”
The bill, A-3881, sponsored by Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-19), would require the state Commissioner of Education to provide preliminary notices of state aid funding to districts in December, instead of mid-March. Reliable early estimates can help school districts avoid mid-budget year chaos so that they can finalize their budgets, minimize drastic property tax hikes, and avoid teacher layoffs and program cuts due to mid-cycle funding shifts.
Under the bill, the state Department of Education must create an online portal where school administrators and the public can find all data inputs and calculations used to determine state school aid for each district.
The legislation also revises the calculation methods for determining a district’s required local contribution to help smooth out large fluctuations. School districts whose state aid has been reduced would be given more time to submit their budgets and make revisions.
The Assembly Education Committee voted unanimously to amend and release the bill.
Ford urged lawmakers to be open to feedback from all stakeholders going forward, including the Sherrill administration, to ensure the details are correct, and that the implementation timeline is achievable.
