Madison Schools to Receive Almost $700K in State Education Aid

The Madison school district will receive $698,692 in state aid for the 2011-12 school year, according to figures released today.

That total is a substantial increase from 2010-11, when the district received zero dollars from Trenton.

The elimination in state aid had led district administrators to make cuts in personnel and programming, although last-minute emergency aid from the state enabled the district to restore the fourth-grade instrumental music program which had been slated for elimination.

"Originally we were supposed to get [more than] $349,000 [in 2011-12]," said President Lisa Ellis. "The increase came through the state budget process. Our aid has doubled but there is still some confusion over how it can be spent that we are trying to sort through."

But Ellis said that even the new figure leaves Madison short of state funding "by roughly $1 million. At an absolute minimum, the funding formula that is the current law should be fully funded. That would provide us with approximately $1.6-1.7 million in aid annually. But the damage done by the loss of all our aid last year and the limited restoration this year, a net loss of approximately $2.7 million dollars, will be difficult to recover from even if the formula is fully funded in 2012-13. That money is gone and we have no way to recover it.  

"In an ideal world, school funding in New Jersey would look more like what has been proposed by Sen. [Michael] Doherty...something closer to fair for every student in the state."

The increase in aid came as part of an $850-million allocation plan for the 2012 fiscal year budget that was announced by Gov. Chris Christie’s administration on Tuesday. The total is made up of three different parts: an initial $250 million that was initially authorized in increased school aid; an additional $150 million for non-Abbott districts, and $450 million to Abbott districts, which is slightly more than half of the total aid.

That $450 million is being distributed amongst 31 districts. That additional funding, according to a release by the Christie administration, fully funds the Abbott districts under the School Funding Reform Act formula.

“This year, New Jersey increased state aid to school districts by $850 million over last year, restoring every dollar of the cuts we were forced to make last year and increasing aid by an additional $30 million,” Christie said in the release.

The aid comes more than a year after the administration made aid cuts to all districts, which were announced on St. Patrick’s Day 2010. In many cases, the additional aid announced on Tuesday doubled the amount that was initially designated for non-Abbott districts.