Senate President Affirms His Commitment to Ensuring School Districts Receive Their Fair and Equitable Share of State Aid

TRENTON – Senate President Steve Sweeney today reiterated his commitment to bring fairness and equity to the School Funding Reform Act when he spoke at the annual New Jersey School Boards Association Legislative Day at the War Memorial in Trenton.  Senator Sweeney noted that the SFRA, as it currently stands, is simply unfair and needs to be fixed.

Presently, the 30 school districts receiving the most adjustment aid from the state are getting $438 million that they are not entitled to and are educating 14,000 fewer students today than they did in 2009.  Meanwhile, the 30 most underfunded districts are getting $1.3 billion less than they should – even though their student population has grown by 32,000 students since 2009.

“For more than two years, Democratic and Republican leaders in the Legislature have been working hard on revisions to the SFRA that would provide fair funding to all our school districts,” said Senator Sweeney.  “I made a promise to fight for fairness and I remain committed to keeping my word.  This year, we are taking the appropriate steps of restoring fairness by phasing out adjustment aid and providing funding on a fair basis with the growth cap removed.”

In addition to Senate President Sweeney’s plan to phase out adjustment aid over a period of years and provide future increases of aid based on an uncapped formula with the aid following the child, Senator Sweeney is committed to expanding preschool education and having the state take over the full cost and administration of Extraordinary Special Education and, ultimately, of all Special Education.

“We have a better opportunity to ensure a ‘thorough and efficient education’ for special education students – and in a more cost-effective way – by shifting responsibility to the state, and that’s what I am committed to doing,” said Senator Sweeney.  “Addressing these core issues will lead us down the road to full funding of the SFRA and bring much-needed property tax relief to taxpayers.”