Egg Harbor Township Schools
Board of Education
13 Swift Drive
Egg Harbor Twp., NJ 08234
(609) 646-8441 x1001
www.eht.k12.nj.us
STATEMENT TO THE HONORABLE
SENATOR JIM WHELAN,
ASSEMBLYMEN JOHN F. AMODEO, & CHRIS A. BROWN
February, 2013
Presented by the Egg Harbor Township School District
Peter E. Castellano, Esq.
Member, Egg Harbor Township Board of Education
Dr. Scott P. McCartney
Superintendent, Egg Harbor Township Schools
Kateryna W. Bechtel, CPA
Business Administrator/Board Secretary
Dear Senator Whelan and Assemblymen Amodeo and Brown:
On behalf of Egg Harbor Township, we would like to once again bring to
your attention our desperate situation with regard to state school funding,
and to explain the unique circumstances that Egg Harbor Township has
faced, and continues to face, with each passing year that our district is not
funded.
As a school district located in a Pinelands Regional Growth Area, the State
Pinelands Commission dictates the amount of residential growth in our
township – our local officials were and still are powerless to stop, or even
slow, residential growth. At the same time, caps placed on budget and aid
growth, coupled with years of flat state aid, simply did not allow us to keep
pace with this growth. As a result, the continuing burden on the property
taxpayers of Egg Harbor Township is particularly onerous.
To state the issue as simply as possible; the State of New Jersey has
mandated the population growth of our township, which caused our school
district to grow, but has not provided us with sufficient funds to educate the
students that came to our district as a result of that mandate. Between 2000
and 2007, our district grew by 2,008 students, for a 7-year growth rate of
34.7%. Only one school district in the entire state grew by more students
than we did during that period – but our rate of growth was the highest in
the state. Our current enrollment is approximately 7,900 – back in 2000,
our enrollment was 5,791. During all this growth, the state aid formula was
not funded, or our increases were capped and did not keep up with this
growth. Ironically, in this year’s state budget a supplemental
appropriation of $4.141 million was provided to 13 districts in our State
for extreme growth – the Egg Harbor Township School District was not
on that list.
According to the Department of Labor, over the 5-year period from 2000 to
2004, Egg Harbor Township had 2,976 single-family housing starts – that’s
the highest number of any municipality in the state. During that same
period of time, our population grew by approximately 10,000, from 30,000
to 40,000. The residential growth has slowed because of the economy, but
we are still mandated to accommodate 22,000 additional residential units.
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It is important to note that when forming the Highlands protection area, the
Legislature chose, after learning about our situation, not to include
mandated growth areas in their plan.
Under the current law that provides State Education Aid, the State
Department of Education imposes a two-tiered cap on the growth of state aid
given to a district over the prior year’s state aid. This cap applies regardless
of costs, or the actual growth in student population. The Egg Harbor
Township School District has lost approximately $174 million over the last
decade due to caps, freezes, and cuts in state aid to education.
For the current school year 2012-2013, our district had $28 million in aid
withheld due to a two-tiered cap. While our state aid according to the
formula should have been approximately $68 million – it was capped off at
approximately $40 million. First, aid increases are limited to 20% per year
– so we lost $20 million there. Next – because of the state’s budgetary
constraints, this 20% increase is being phased in over 5 years – so we lost
another $8 million there – this is the so-called 20% of 20% cap rule that has
decimated our state aid most recently. (See attached spreadsheet) Our new
aid numbers for 2013-2014 show an additional 24 million dollars in aid
withheld at the same time aid to choice school districts is increasing
substantially.
This difference has to be made up by the property tax payers. Our
Township residents have been faced with large property tax increases for
most of the past decade, with no end in sight. But with the downturn in the
economy, they cannot sustain this burden. In 2001, state aid was
approximately 60% of our budget – if trends continue – next year state aid
will be only 35% of our budget. It’s time for the state to pay its fair share.
To add insult to injury, P.L.2012, CHAPTER 37, approved August 7, 2012
was passed to assist certain districts experiencing significant enrollment
increases after 2008. However, our growth occurred earlier, so the criteria
developed excluded our district from being eligible. Despite our exponential
growth, we received no additional aid, and are still suffering through the
Caps on our formula aid, which has never caught up with our student
growth.
We spend our funds wisely, as demonstrated by the Department of
Education’s Taxpayer’s Guide to Education Spending. In virtually every
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area we are well below the state average, and in the areas that seem to be
getting the most attention in our current climate - classroom salaries and
benefits (9th lowest), administrative salaries and benefits (3rd lowest), and
total per-pupil budgetary cost (13th lowest) in the state. Last year, we spent
almost $6 million below “Adequacy” – that’s the amount of money the state
says we should spend given the students we have. This year, 2013-2014,
that amount is just short of 15 million dollars! This path is unsustainable.
The State of New Jersey is failing to live up to its Constitutional duty to
fund a Thorough and Efficient education for the children of Egg Harbor
Township, and is failing to abide by the Constitutionally imposed principle
of ‘State Mandate State Pay.’ It is both fundamentally unfair, and
completely contrary to the principle of ‘State Mandate State Pay’ for one
arm of the state government to mandate growth in a school district, while
another arm of the state government refuses to provide the aid necessary to
provide a Thorough and Efficient education for an increased student
population in that same district.
There is no end in sight to this vicious cycle of mandated growth in student
population, coupled with effective cuts in state education aid. With any
revitalization in the Atlantic City Casino industry and growth coming from
the Federal Aviation Administration Research Park we anticipate renewed
growth in Egg Harbor Township. In summary, we are asking you to step in
and allocate additional state education aid to State Pinelands Commission
mandated growth districts like Egg Harbor Township. Unless there is a
change - the students and property taxpayers in Egg Harbor Township will
continue to be short-changed.
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WHAT OUR DISTRICT NEEDS
1. Fully fund the formula on the books. With the imposition of a 2 %
budget cap, our only hope to be able to educate our children is through
ADEQUATE STATE AID. Funding must be on a per pupil basis, based on
actual ASSA counts, regardless of community wealth.
2. Lift Caps on aid growth. No stabilization ceilings or floors; fund the
students while they are actually in the district – the money follows the
students.
3. Do not require the district to pay back part of our aid to the EDA in
the form of the EDA assessment. Our 2013-14 assessment grew from
$472,583 to unconscionable total of $736,985 – a $264,402 increase.
4. Budget Cap exceptions must be allowed, and set at adequate dollar
amounts, most importantly for school security, as well as special education
costs that exceed $40,000 per pupil.
5. Districts with student transportation services should be held to efficiency
standards, districts with better efficiency should receive more aid.
6. Early Childhood program aid should be provided to districts that have not
implemented full day kindergarten programs.
7. Charter Schools should be funded directly, and not flow-through the
regular school district’s budgets.
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