McGuckin Wants Meeting with Education Commissioner: “Show Your Work”

7/10/2025

Rather than allowing the district to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, the state Department of Education is forcing New Jersey’s sixth largest school district to raise property taxes 13% after years of funding cuts totaling more than $175 million have gutted staff and programs.

McGuckin wants answers.

“As you advance in mathematics and data science you learn there are competing theories for predicting outcomes, like Bayesian versus Frequentist statistics,” McGuckin (R-Ocean) said. “The probability that this funding formula is flawed—and I’ll be honest, I’d like to use a much stronger word—is obvious, no matter what theorem you use to crunch the numbers. Of course, we have no idea how Dehmer arrives at these numbers. Or sleeps at night seeing how this is destroying school districts like Toms River.”

Toms River was one of six school districts that sued the NJDOE in 2020 after it failed to respond to an Open Public Records Act request seeking information on how state aid was calculated. They won that and a follow-up suit in 2022; however, any sense of victory was short-lived. While the state released the algorithm, only the state can run that algorithm, so how funding is determined remains a secret.

Since the formula’s inception in 2019, Toms River Schools, a district of about 15,000 students across 18 schools, has been forced to lay off 250 staff, cut programs and sell its administrative building on Hooper Avenue to fill in budget shortfalls, even after imposing tax hikes over the 2% cap signed into law in 2010.

At its June 30 meeting, the district’s board of education refused to pass its 2025-26 budget which saw a $22.3 million deficit, instead seeking to file Chapter 9 bankruptcy, a specific provision that would have allowed the school district to restructure its debts. Superintendent Michael Citta recently told NJ Spotlight News that without such protection, it would be the end of Toms River schools: elementary class sizes of 150-to-1, 300 more staff cuts.

The NJDOE, for its part, issued a statement acknowledging “the difficulty inherent in school district budgeting decisions, the State and the public hold their school district leaders to the highest standards and expect them to rise to this challenge. This is not only an expectation but is required under State law. The weight of these decisions only affirms – not excuses – the importance of every district leader to deliver upon this most fundamental obligation. On this vital measure, the Board has fallen short, despite having been afforded extended opportunities to deliberate, revise, and adopt a budget acceptable to the Board. Now, with summer programs and other student services set to begin next week, the Department must step in and act accordingly.”

“Meanwhile in Newark, they’re throwing parties with their $1.3 billion in state aid while their test scores and graduation rates—I’ll say it—suck,” McGuckin said. “Toms River students and Toms River taxpayers deserve answers, not stuffy bureaucratese that places the blame on the local board of education and administration that has run out of options and has their hands tied.”

McGuckin is issuing an open invitation to Dehmer to meet in his district office to help him understand how the state funding cuts were calculated for Toms River, and how what can only be called a catastrophic funding crisis is fair and equitable. Or better yet, the Assemblyman said he’ll bring the entire board to Dehmer’s office so he can show them all the inner workings of the funding formula.

“My teachers always told me to show my work,” McGuckin said. “I want Dehmer to show his work.”