End 'War' On Monmouth School Districts, GOP Lawmakers Tell State

COLTS NECK, NJ — Area GOP legislators on Friday called for full state funding of all Monmouth County school districts with budget shortfalls.

With Colts Neck High School, one of the six schools in the Freehold Regional High School District, as a backdrop, the legislators, local officials and a state Senate candidate said at a joint event that the county is in a "funding war."

Many school districts in the county are facing budget cuts, said the GOP legislators, criticizing Gov. Murphy and Democrats, supporters of the 2018 S2 bill passed to equalize state aid to education.

Speaking at the press event in Colts Neck were Assemblywomen Marilyn Piperno and Kim Eulner, both Republicans representing the 11th District in the state Legislature, among several others. Here is a link to the video.

State Sen. Vin Gopal is part of the legislative team for the 11th District district, but he is a Democrat and was not part of the event.

Gopal's office said earlier this week that Gopal, the chair of the Senate Education Committee, has been in contact with the Freehold Regional district and is looking for ways to find funding to avoid the busing cuts.

Gopal's rival for election this November, Republican Steve Dnistrian, also spoke at the press conference. Also speaking were Assemblypersons Gerry Scharfenberger and Vicky Flynn, both Republicans from the nearby 13th District that includes Marlboro, another municipality in the Freehold Regional High School District.

The outcry was prompted by plans for the regional school district to cut courtesy busing to students in the district who live in a 2.5-mile radius of the school to help close a budget gap.

The gap is brought on, the district says, by several years of state aid cuts.

Since 2018, state aid to the regional district has been reduced under S2, creating budget constraints for the district that serves more than 10,000 students in six schools in western Monmouth County: Manalapan, Marlboro, Freehold, Freehold Township, Howell and Colts Neck high schools.

What is referred to as "S2," a 2018 state aid equalization law, determined which districts were underfunded or overfunded with state aid, with adjustments in aid being applied since then.

But yesterday, legislators noted that the regional district isn't the only one facing hard economic choices.

In light of recent reports that Asbury Park schools are mulling possible layoffs - and the Freehold Regional busing cuts for 3,000 students, the legislators said the state needs to get to the "root cause" of the problem.

Since 2018, the 11th Legislative District school districts have had a net loss of roughly $75 million in state aid for its schools, with more intense cuts projected in the future, Piperno said.

“What are the factors behind S2, you ask? It’s a great question. Nobody knows. No one can tell you how the metrics are applied to decimate schools and overload others," she said.

She again called on the state to use either unspent COVID relief funds or some of the state’s $10 billion surplus to support the districts. She said a long-term solution to "this mess” is needed.

Assemblywoman Eulner noted that the regional school district has already cut 132 staff positions over the past several years, despite keeping administrative costs at 25 percent below the state average. She said the surplus is taxpayers' money that should be used to help the entire state.

Dnistrian, the District 11 state Senate candidate, also called for a restoration of state aid. "This is not right, and it’s just the beginning of many cuts yet to come."

Assemblywoman Flynn said the number to fully fund the state's districts is $55 million.

"Isn't the education of our students the priority? There are many solutions to this problem," she said, such as using surplus funds to offset the budget gaps.

Assemblyman Scharfenberger said the S2 formula is a "total mystery" and he was not given a good explanation by state education officials during budget hearings regarding how they arrive at state aid figures.

"We have to get immediate relief," he said, "and then we have to make sure we don't have to go through this every year."