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To the Editor, Asbury Park Sun:

Asbury Park’s economic recovery over the past two decades is an unqualified success.  The City has thrived and no longer receives State transitional aid.  However, the financial picture for its schools is quite different. Asbury Park School District is halfway through a six-year process of losing tens of millions of dollars in State aid that was provided when the City of Asbury Park lacked the resources to sufficiently fund its schools. Now is the time for the residents of Asbury Park to determine how and what local funding will replace the continuing loss of State aid. 

Failure to support our schools would create two cities in one — a city for those who purchase million-dollar condominiums, and a city for middle- and low-income families whose kids attend underfunded schools. To avoid this, we first must begin to understand the issues surrounding school funding and work toward solutions. 

School funding is driven by the State government. The State employs formulas to determine a.) what a school district’s budget should be, and b.) how much the municipality should contribute to its schools. 

The current funding formula was established in 2008 and determined funding factors like enrollment numbers, the need for special education instruction, English language learners, poverty rate, and other factors. The current formula also includes the valuation of a municipality’s real property, and the income of its residents to determine how much the municipality should contribute. The State then funds the gap between the overall budget and the municipality’s required share. 

Unfortunately, the State did not enforce this formula for almost a decade. Since 2008, as some districts lost enrollment or if a municipality experienced financial growth – Asbury Park experienced both — the State funding did not decrease. In 2018, legislation known as S2 began to end these State subsidies for school districts.  

This drastically impacts Asbury Park.  First, S2 forces the municipality to pay more toward its schools. Due to the City’s financial recovery, the State formula requires Asbury Park residents to contribute an additional $10 million over the next three years toward the school budget. 

Second, the State formula requires Asbury Park School District to cut additional millions from its budget to meet the lower total budget amount identified by the State formula.

Clearly, these challenges are formidable and will require a multi-pronged approach that could include: continued budget cuts; generation of new revenues; increased student enrollment; supporting a fairer State formula, and pursuing shared services and partnerships with other entities.

It would be difficult to describe Asbury Park as a cultural center and as an example of a thriving, inclusive community, if we ignore the challenges facing our schools.  The all-in commitment, effort, and ingenuity that resolved our City’s blight is now necessary to resolve our school funding issue. Legislators, City Council, and School Board must collaborate on creative solutions to support the education of our children, and ease the financial burden on its residents. 

The opinions herein are those of the individuals signing below, and do not represent the official positions of any organizations of which these individuals are members.

This letter is submitted by: Giuseppe “Joe” Grillo and Dominic Latorraca, Members of the Asbury Park Board of Education

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