District to receive an additional $111,000 this year.
By: Cynthia Koons
WASHINGTON After a year of frozen state aid and concerns about rising enrollment, the Washington Township School District finally got some welcome news.
As part of Gov. James E. McGreevey’s school aid allocation in the state’s 2003 state budget, the Washington Township School District will receive an additional $111,000 in aid this year.
Last week, Gov. McGreevey told legislators he would earmark $200 million for school aid, $100 million of which would go toward school construction, $50 million to the approximately 30 special needs districts and $50 million for the remaining schools, state Sen. Robert Singer, R-30th, whose district includes Washington Township.
"This brought the (proposed property) tax increase down by a penny," said Board of Education Secretary Chris Mullens.
He said that over the past two years, the aid increase averaged about 1.1 percent in districts statewide, while Washington ended up receiving about a 6.1 percent increase from this proposed budget.
"Even though it didn’t keep up with our enrollment, it’s better than the statewide average," Mr. Mullins said. Washington’s enrollment has increased by about 17 percent over the last two years, he added.
"Right now we’re taking this as what our state aid number is for this year and we’re going to move forward with this number until told differently," Mr. Mullins said.
Sen. Singer said his legislative district which also includes Upper Freehold, Plumsted and Roosevelt, among others was hit hard with the governor’s proposed budget.
"I will not support a budget that doesn’t do more for our schools," he said. "All of the growth areas of the state are in our district. Towns that have the same enrollment are benefiting.
"I have to believe a lot of this is politically motivated," he said. "The towns that are benefiting from this are Democratically controlled towns."
He said Gov. McGreevey’s proposed budget benefits northern New Jersey communities, which have stable growth as well as the special needs districts.
"How could you compare giving $50 million to 500 districts and $50 million to 30 other districts?
"You’re stealing from our children’s education to fund those districts," he said. "There’s been no big success in those 30 districts in spending millions upon millions upon millions. The problems in many of those 30 special needs districts are not educational they’re social."
He, along with state Sen. Leonard Connors (R-9th), introduced a bill to prohibit the use of local real property taxes or a statewide property tax to fund the core curriculum of education in New Jersey schools.
But he said it’s seen little movement since its introduction last year and that three or four other bills have been offered to examine the way education is funded statewide, none of which the governor has supported.
"(The governor) will sign no budget with any tax increases, but what he’s done to our municipalities is given a tax increase," he said.
Mr. Mullins said the exact tax increase of this year’s rising school budget has yet to be determined. In initial estimations released last month, the proposed $25.3 million Washington Township school budget called for an increase in the school tax rate from $2.12 to $2.38 per $100 assessed value. A resident with a home assessed at the township average of $175,000 would pay an additional $455 in taxes if these estimates were to hold.
The school budget faces a public vote in April.

