The School Funding Problem
The school funding formula is part of The School Funding Reform Act (SFRA).
It is designed to ensure that every school district has the finances necessary to provide a thorough and efficient education, taking into account both student needs and local community wealth.
Right now, the state determines how much a district needs to educate all students (Adequacy Budget) and how much in local real estate taxes a town should contribute (Local Fair Share).
The state will make up the difference between Adequacy Budget and Local Fair Share with something called Equalization Aid. This is how the state justifies "fully funding education".
The formula looks like this:
Because Adequacy Budget and Local Fair Share are predetermined by the State, this formula is not accurate and often causes a misconception that the State is actually fully funding education.
This formula is a more accurate representation of what is happening:
But there's a huge problem with how the formula works.
Right now, the following 3 items are preventing the school district from being appropriately funded through state and local funding.
- The amount of money going to schools from our local real estate taxes is well below The Local Fair share.
- The Local Fair Share is increasing year over year at a rate greater than 2%.
- Collingswood Public Schools can only raise their portion of real estate taxes by 2%.
And as the gap continues to widen, Equalization Aid WILL NOT increase to offset the widening gap.
For the last 10 years, the gap between the Local Fair Share and amount raised through the local real estate tax levy continues to widen.
Since the 23-24 SY, the local fair share has increased 10% per year.
Here's a graph showing the difference over the last 14 years:
