Asbury Park Schools Facing $8.6M+ State Aid Cut For 2022-23

ASBURY PARK, NJ — The Asbury Park School District will have its state school funding cut by more than $8 million for the 2022-23 school year, under state aid figures released by the state Department of Education.

Asbury Park is among about 200 school districts whose aid is being reduced under Gov. Phil Murphy's proposed Fiscal Year 2023 budget.

Murphy's administration proposed $9.2 billion for New Jersey pre-K to 12 schools, including an additional $649.8 million for K-12 aid to put K-12 "formula" aid at $9.92 billion.

Asbury Park is slated to receive $29,290,023 in aid for 2022-23, more than $8.6 million less than the $37,906,304 the district received in 2021-22.

The incoming aid breakdown includes $25.8 million in equalization aid, $478,668 in transportation aid, $1.89 million in special education aid and $1.1 million in security aid.

Asbury Park and other school districts are still waiting for the state Department of Education to turn over the data and formula codes that go with the algorithm the state says is used to determine the aid distribution.

The education department was ordered to turn over the data and codes in a January ruling by a state judge, who has granted the state extra time to fulfill the Open Public Records Act request that the judge ruled had been unlawfully denied, the Asbury Park Press reported.
The data and codes are needed to check to see if the state's math on state aid is correct, officials have said.