Assembly Candidate Jeffrey Brown Calls for Fair Funding for Schools

For Immediate Release

East Brunswick, NJ- District 18 Assembly candidate, Jeffrey Brown released the following statement about his commitment to securing fair funding for the school districts making up the 18th legislative district as well as his commitment for a fairer school funding formula statewide.

The 7 public school districts making up the 18th legislative district (including Spotswood which is in the 14th LD but also attended by Helmetta students) received $79,397,798 in state funding. This stands in sharp contrast to districts such as Jersey City ($379,711,659) and Newark ($812,391,624), two cities with similar populations to the 18th District as a whole. 18th District funding as a whole was also only a small portion of Middlesex County’s overall funding, with cities such as New Brunswick receiving $139,173,998 and Perth Amboy receiving $172,615,671, even though the 18th LD has larger resident and student populations and better ranked schools.

“The stark and seemingly random differences in the level of school funding various districts receive need to be reformed. The residents of the 18th LD deserve their fair share of school funding and should not be forced to subsidize exorbitant spending in urban districts, while schools within our districts are overcrowded and students are forced to use 20 year old text books,” stated Brown. “The 18th legislative district is 76% of the population of the City of Newark, yet only receives 9.8% of the state funding. While reforming the school funding formula statewide is my ultimate goal, at a minimum, I will work ensure the 18th LD school districts get a fairer share.”

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