Funding fix sought for Pinelands, Highlands school districts

Lawmakers have renewed a longstanding call for reforms to New Jersey’s school funding formula.

State Sen. Latham Tiver (R-Burlington) recently testified before the Senate Education Committee in support of legislation that would provide additional state aid to districts that have lost school funding while facing state-imposed development restrictions.

“The Pinelands and the Highlands are pretty much in the same boat,” Tiver said. “We’re asked to preserve land, which is a great thing, but yet these towns aren’t able to broaden their tax base.”

Schools are feeling the impact, Tiver said. One district recently laid off security guards — a “kind of eye-opening” move, he said. Some schools are eliminating sports programs, or charging for participation.

“There’s another district who has to try to decide whether or not they’re going to lay off 190 aides or raise taxes,” he added.

Aid more than halved

Under the proposal, school districts could qualify for additional support if they lost state aid and have at least 25% preserved land in the environmentally sensitive Pinelands or Highlands, each which is crucial to drinking water supplies. Schools with 500-999 students could receive as much as $2.5 million, while schools with 1,000 students or more could qualify for $5 million maximum, Riber said.

The bill is not meant to be an “open checkbook,” but a targeted response to communities that are required to preserve land while also absorbing steep school aid cuts, Tiver said.

“Some of these schools have lost more than 50% of their state aid in the last seven, eight years. So they’re really struggling,” he said.

The legislation has drawn support from lawmakers in both parties, according to Tiver.

Tiver also discussed a bill that would create the New Jersey Military Family Relief Fund and provide grants of as much as $2,500 to military members, veterans and their families facing financial hardship. The fund would help cover food, housing, medical care and other essential needs and would be supported through voluntary contributions on state income tax returns, and also via donations, grants and possible legislative appropriations.

Tiver said the proposal is aimed in part at National Guard personnel who are dealing with the same affordability pressures as other New Jersey families.

“How are we paying for our electric bills, food, groceries, electric bills, just your medical expenses? And how can we help people who go and fight for us for our freedoms?” Tiver said. “We have the freedoms that we have because of them. So that’s a small token that we can give them.”