Brick Township Board of Education/Schools (Photo: Daniel Nee)
The amount of state aid Brick Township receives to run its school system will remain flat for the 2015-16 school year, according to figures released by the state.
The total amount of aid for the K-12 district will be $35,938,828, the same amount the district received for the current school year. Part of that figure – $9,463,269 – is what is known as “equalization aid,” which the state provides to Brick after making a determination that its tax levy is effectively too low.
The district also receives $4,922,064 in transportation aid, $5,393,423 in special education aid and $1,039,800 in security aid. Additionally, the state will provide the district with $92,090 to help it get ready for students to take the PARCC test and $92,090 in per-pupil growth aid.
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Much of the district’s aid, $14,934,026, is adjustment aid, essentially discretionary aid given to districts in the state’s funding formula.
Long criticized by suburban residents paying highest-in-the-nation property taxes, New Jersey’s funding formula provides the majority of its education funding to 31 mainly urban, low-income districts, formerly known as “Abbott” districts after the series of Supreme Court decisions bearing that name. A lack of state aid means local taxpayers must fund more of their districts’ budgets, leading to higher property tax levies given a lesser amount of assistance from the state. In the 2015-16 budget, about 65 percent of the state’s total educational funding is provided to those districts, out of 590 total.
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