The New Jersey Department Of Education (NJDOE) has released theoretical figures that offer alternative school funding scenarios for Roselle Park School District (RPSD) along with other districts throughout the state.
The information provided by the state compares New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s funding proposal for schools and the state legislature’s model showing the state’s funding formula if it was fully funded. The hypothetical amounts were released by the NJDOE on its website for informational purposes only. This data is also available at New Jersey Spotlight (link).
Currently, there is debate in state government between Governor Christie – a Republican – with his proposal to change how New Jersey funds its schools through state aid and the Democratic-majority legislature’s proposal to fully fund each district under the current School Funding Reform Act (SFRA). Although funding under the SFRA is required, it has not been fully funded but in order to have school districts fully funded, it would require an increase in additional state funding. That amount ranges from figures in the hundreds of millions to nearly one billion dollars.
In no way meant to be taken as real – or even close to real – amounts, the figures are meant to open a discussion about how taxpayers pay to educate children through the public school system in New Jersey.
A spreadsheet with district -level detail of funding scenarios for the current school year and the 2018-19 school year is available below. The governor’s plan will keep state aid given to Roselle Park schools at the same amount for the two years – which is the same amount of state aid given for the 2016-17 school year. The SFRA fully-funded amounts for both years are around $2 million more than the governor’s proposal – about 20%.
| School Year | (Governor's Proposed) | (Estimated Legislature's Model) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-18 | $10,554,830.00 | $12,552,317.00 | $1,997,487.00 | 18.9% |
| 2018-19 | $10,554,830.00 | $12,665,796.00 | $2,110,966.00 | 20.0% |