Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Who are the "Support Our Students" Districts?


Since the beginning of 2018-19 school year a group of districts has emerged calling itself SOS "Support Our Students" whose raison d'etre is to oppose the redistribution of state aid that is called for by the S2 legislation.

The group is led by South Jersey districts including Toms River, Brick, and Freehold Regional, but there are actually 71 districts involved, mostly but not entirely from South Jersey.

The following is my analysis of these districts.  Here is the "SOS Overaiding Spreadsheet" I used to create this.

Twenty of the SOS districts have fewer than 500 students:


OAKLYN BORO431
FRANKFORD419
RIVERTON352
WILDWOOD CREST281
STILLWATER TWP251
OGDENSBURG214
FREDON TWP195
NORTH WILDWOOD191
SPRINGFIELD TWP181
WEYMOUTH TWP171
PORT REPUBLIC162
WENONAH BORO158
SANDYSTON-WALPACK149
WOODLAND TWP131
HAMPTON BORO124
LAVALLETTE123
BLOOMSBURY120
STOW CREEK110
ROOSEVELT104
GREENWICH TWP63

The median district gets 149% of its Uncapped Aid, but there are 17 districts getting over 200%, four getting over 300%, and one Springfield Township of Burlington County, getting 456%.


DistrictUpdated Aid as a Percentage of Uncapped Aid (Choice Aid excluded)
SPRINGFIELD TWP456.10%
LOWER CAPE MAY REGIONAL349.58%
FRANKFORD TWP323.50%
WENONAH BORO314.65%
WEYMOUTH TWP295.58%
MANALAPAN-ENGLISHTOWN REG284.54%
GREAT MEADOWS REG.276.64%
EATONTOWN BORO269.83%
ROOSEVELT BORO269.49%
BRICK266.51%
WASHINGTON TWP251.34%
EVESHAM TWP247.67%
NORTH WILDWOOD CITY247.35%
HOBOKEN CITY228.23%
STILLWATER TWP223.62%
NORTH WARREN REGIONAL202.08%
HAINESPORT TWP200.96%

There are actually three UNDERAIDED districts who have joined SOS, Delanco, Burlington City, and Point Pleasant Beach.

The median district actually does pay 100% of its Local Fair Share, but there are fourteen districts who pay less than 80% of their Local Fair Shares, including HOBOKEN.  


Taxes as Percentage of LFS
Gap Between LFS and Tax Levy
LOWER CAPE MAY REGIONAL79.30%$5,295,510
CLEARVIEW REGIONAL79.10%$4,885,326
BRICK78.80%$27,503,507
TOMS RIVER REGIONAL76.80%$45,870,690
TINTON FALLS74.50%$7,715,909
KEANSBURG68.50%$2,332,575
GLOUCESTER CITY66.90%$2,811,770
POINT PLEASANT BEACH63.70%$6,991,353
PEMBERTON TWP57.70%$9,158,649
WILDWOOD CREST BORO42.00%$10,212,297
VINELAND38.00%$37,552,075
NORTH WILDWOOD CITY33.90%$13,327,242
LAVALLETTE BORO21.50%$13,047,069
HOBOKEN CITY20.10%$173,999,690

Note, Local Fair Share isn't the same tax rate for every district.  It ranges from 0.7% up to 2.0%.  For Toms River, Brick, Wildwood City, Point Pleasant Beach, and other Jersey Shore districts, Local Fair Shares are very low because vacation homes do not have income attached to them and Local Fair Share is partly based on residential income.

The state median for Local Fair Share is a 1.42% tax rate, but Brick and Toms River have 1.2% Local Fair Share tax rates.  Wildwood City's Local Fair Share tax rate is 0.8%.  

I do not have the time to determine which of these districts are above or below Adequacy (which I don't focus on because spending relative to Adequacy depends on local tax effort and not just state aid), but more than half are above Adequacy.  



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