Gov. Christie Will Hold Town Hall In Morris County To Discuss School Funding Proposal

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will hold a town hall meeting in Morris County on Monday in order to discuss his proposed School Funding Fairness Formula, a plan introduced over the summer. Christie is making his way across the state in order to explain to Jerseyans how his plan can cut property taxes and improve urban schooling.

The "Fairness Formula" would reconfigure the allocation formula for school funding, distributing taxpayer funds for K-12 education equally for each student in New Jersey. According to Christie, under the current paradigm of school aid distribution, $9.1 billion dollars of taxpayer-funded state aid for K-12 education is currently distributed unequally.

A disproportionate amount of that direct aid, $5.1 billion says Christie's team, goes to a scant 31 school districts in the state. The remaining 4 billion, according to Christie's argument, goes to 546 school districts. This means that in those towns where people are paying the most in property taxes, under the current funding formula, the majority of their contributions are likely not going back into their own school districts.

"58% of the aid from state taxpayers goes to 5% of the school districts, while 42% of the aid goes to the remaining 95% of school districts," said Chris Christie during his announcement of the Fairness Formula. "This is absurd. It’s unfair. It’s not working, and it hasn’t worked for 30 years."

According to both WalletHub and Chris Christie, property taxes are the highest in New Jersey, in comparison to the rest of the United States. The majority of those taxes paid by homeowners has gone towards local school taxes. According to Christie, the disproportionate spending of funneling money towards urban school districts, once considered the formula for graduating more economically disadvantaged students, hasn't been successful in its goal.

"Spending does not equal achievement—never has and it never will," stated Christie in his address. "Over the last 30 years...New Jersey taxpayers have sent $97 billion to the 31 Schools Development Authority districts. The other 546 districts in the state have received collectively $9 billion less over the last 30 years. In 1990, 23% of the children in New Jersey were in SDA districts, and at that time 26 years ago they got 41% of the state aid. In the 26 years since the percentage of students in SDA districts has not moved a lick. It’s still 23%, but now they get 59% of the state aid."

Christie's Fairness Formula proposes to distribute the aid equally, which could potentially lower property tax bills and increase the amount of aid many school districts receive. A Morris County example Christie used his address would mean was Chatham Township, where aid would go up by 1,271%, and taxes would go down by over $3,800 per household. Christie's Fairness Formula site proclaims that "75% of all New Jersey districts would get more state aid than they do today."

The Fairness Formula Town Hall with Governor Chris Christie will take place on Monday, September 19, at 11 AM at the Hanover Township Community Center, located at 15 North Jefferson Road in Whippany. Doors will open at 10:00 AM.

Those who plan on attending are asked to RSVP to FairnessFormula.Hanover@nj.gov. Seating is on a first come, first served basis. No bags of any kind are permitted in the venue and all personal items are subject to search.

Image via Luigi Novi, Wikimedia Commons, used under Creative Commons.