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Call/Email the Governor and
Legislators on Fridays

Please help with our Friday Phone Calls campaign. The Governor gave his state budget address on February 27th, and advertised fully funding Public School education. He forgot about Cherry Hill. We are counting on the entire community to engage in advocacy for our students. Without your voice, our community is facing drastic changes to Cherry Hill education.

We are the only previously underfunded district to have been cut this year. Previously overfunded districts have the ear of representatives in Trenton, and continue to advocate for overturning S2 in order to restore dollars to these districts who have collected more than their fair share over the years. We must remind the people in power that our decades of underfunding cannot be allowed to happen again. We need consistent, fully-funded state education dollars to bring the District up to the standard that our students and teachers deserve.

 

The funding formula had Cherry Hill loose money under the equalization aid portion of the formula. This is tied directly to property values and incomes. This is where our efforts will be focused.

Call or Email Governor Murphy, the Dept of Education, and our Local Legislators asking them to support Cherry Hill Schools FULLY the way the governor stated in his budget address.

Governor Murphy

609.292.6000

constituent.relations@nj.gov

Sen Budget Chair, Paul Sarlo          Sen Ed Chair, Vin Gopal

201.804.8118                               732.695.3371

SenSarlo@njleg.org                       SenGopal@njleg.org

Asm Budget Chair, Eliana Pintor Marin

973.589.0713

AswPintorMarin@njleg.org

Asw Pam Lampitt                          Asm Lou Greenwald

856.435.1247                               856.435.1247

AswLampitt@njleg.org                   AsmGreenwald@njleg.org

State Sen Jim Beach

856.429.1572

SenBeach@njleg.org

Always copy fairfundingchps@gmail.com on all emails so we can tack correspondence.

ACT NOW

Next Meeting: March 21, 2024
 at 7pm via Zoom.
 

To join meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85756147202


To join via One tap mobile: 1-646-558-8656,,85756147202# US (New York)


To join via conference call: 1-646-558-8656 Meeting ID: 857 5614 7202
 

Friday Phone Calls and Emails.png

Tweet/Call the Governor and
NJ Dept of Education on February 14, 2023

Send Some Love to CH Schools on Valentine's Day

Please help with our Tuesday Tweet campaign. The Governor will give his state budget address on February 28th, and we want him to send us full funding again this year. Tweet Governor Murphy and the NJ Department of Education or phone them on Tuesday, February 14th to make sure they think of Cherry Hill Schools when they allocate their education dollars. School year 2022-23 was the first time the District received full funding -- let's make sure it's not the last. Ask them to send Cherry Hill schools some love this Valentine's Day!

One reason to advocate for full funding is that the Cherry Hill Schools District has many more students this year than in years past. Enrollment increased by more than 1200 kids to 11,867 students. We cannot afford to go backwards in our state funding.

Another is that overfunded districts have the ear of representatives in Trenton, and they are working hard to overturn or adjust S2 in order restore dollars to these districts who have collected more than their fair share over the years. We must remind the people in power that our decades of underfunding cannot be undone in a single year. We need consistent, fully-funded state education dollars to bring the District up to the standard that our students and teachers deserve.

 

Ask the Governor and the Department of Education to keep Cherry Hill in mind going forward. Our history as an underfunded district is long, but we are moving in the right direction. Remind them that maintaining full funding for Cherry Hill will significantly impact our schools and provide future opportunities for our students.

Send a Tweet or call:

@GovMurphy                609-292-6000

@NewJerseyDOE           877-900-6960

Include the hashtags @chpstweets and @chzonepta to boost exposure.

Full Funding for Cherry Hill!

Legislature passes $29.6M for Cherry Hill Schools in 2022-23 budget

 

Governor Murphy proposed and the Legislature passed $29,589,448 in state aid for Cherry Hill Public Schools in the 2022-23 budget. That's a $4.89 million increase, up 19.8% from last year!

 

Wow! Thank you for your efforts, Cherry Hill parents, teachers and community members. And thank you to Gov Murphy and our legislators for listening. Our kids deserve Fair Funding!

Why We Need Both Fair Funding and the Bond

Inadequate state funding for Cherry Hill schools dates back to the 1990s.

 

The School Funding Reform Act of 2008 was a legislative attempt to address inequities in state education funding in New Jersey. Unfortunately, the legislature was unable to fully fund the formula, leaving districts like Cherry Hill, whose mandated allocation was $29 million, drastically underfunded.

 

Cherry Hill was penalized for being fiscally responsible, and suffered funding losses over the years ranging from $10 to $20 million per year, with the total loss estimated to be more than $170 million.

 

Through the efforts of Fair Funding for Cherry Hill Public Schools (and other advocacy groups statewide), pressure was brought to bear on Trenton to restore state aid fairly according to the formula.

 

In 2018, the NJ legislature passed another reform bill (S2), which will increase Cherry Hill’s funding by 2024-25 to its mandated level. While this is a positive step, the restoration of state aid will not begin to make up for the damage done by the cumulative loss we have suffered.

 

This loss of funding has forced the district to make some hard choices. It prioritized staff and curriculum over the upkeep of facilities. So while schools maintained academic excellence, their buildings, parking lots, playgrounds and fields deteriorated.

 

At this point, our schools need a massive infusion of funds that only a bond referendum can meet. A bond is the only way to raise the capital investment needed to make up for the millions we missed out on from the state. The future of our schools is at stake. 

 

The citizens of Cherry Hill can make this happen. Approving a bond will result in a small property tax increase that will be offset by additional state aid reimbursements for 40% of the renovation costs. This one-time property tax increase will result in a huge long-term gain for Cherry Hill.

 

The entire community will benefit from renovation of our schools. Parents will know their children are learning in upgraded, safer environments; students will enjoy improved educational opportunities; and all homeowners, even those without children in the schools, will enjoy enhanced property values.

State Funding Numbers Up for 2021-22

The NJ Department of Education released its budget numbers for Cherry Hill for the 2021-22 school year: They are directing $24,698,590 to our district. That is an increase of 26.4% from the previous year.

 

This is tremendous progress towards full funding under SFRA. District administrators, educators, parents and community members who have been working to rectify the underfunding that has plagued Cherry Hill for so long appreciate this progress. We are grateful for our legislators' commitment to following S2 and their continued efforts on our behalf to fully fund our district's schools.

Fair Funding Update: 2020-21 School Year

Thanks to the pandemic, the Cherry Hill School District did not receive the proposed funding increase it was promised. Originally, the NJ Dept of Education planned to allocate $21.9 million to our school, which was an 18.85% increase from last year, and a significant step toward the $29.3 million Cherry Hill is supposed to receive annually from the state. 

 

Instead, Cherry Hill has been given $19.5 million, which is a 6% increase over last year's state funding. 

While we are moving in the right direction, the pace is frustratingly slow. Consider what our district could do with the nearly $10 million we missed out on this year, in terms of addressing any of a number of issues affecting it during this unprecedented time. Imagine how different our school technology or HVAC systems or security would be if we had received the more than $160 million Cherry Hill should have gotten under SFRA since 2008.

Many of the issues currently frustrating parents and teachers and administrators are due in significant part to the chronic underfunding we have suffered at the hands of the state. 

Cherry Hill's State Funding Background

  • The State of NJ has chronically underfunded the Cherry Hill School District for decades.

 

  • Under the School Funding Reform Act (SFRA), the most recent education funding distribution formula, Cherry Hill should receive $29 million. But NJ has never allocated enough money to fully fund the formula.

 

  • Cherry Hill has never received its formula-mandated amount. For 2021-22, it received $24.6 million. 

  • This came after many years of advocating for increased funding. In 2010, then Gov. Christie slashed funding to education: Cherry Hill received $7.9 million to educate more than 11,000 students. (Of that $7.9 million, $3.9 million was taken from money Cherry Hill schools had in its excess fund balance, earmarked to help the following year’s budget, as well as 25% of the money from its capital reserve. That money has never been returned.). Funding has been climbing in small increments since then.

 

  • Cherry Hill has lost out on more than $170 million it was entitled to under SFRA. It will never recover this money.

 

  • While Cherry Hill has been underfunded, many districts in NJ (roughly one third) have been overfunded, according to the SFRA formula. Districts like Washington Township, Toms River, Brick, Freehold, Lenape Regional and Eastern Regional all have received more than their fair share of funding.

 

  • When the formula was first implemented, those overfunded districts were given adjustment aid to help them transition to their allotted funding amounts. However, this excess aid was never phased out as planned.

 

  • In 2018, the Legislature passed a law (S2) to distribute education funds more equitably. Over the course of seven years, aid to overfunded districts will be reduced and aid to underfunded districts will be increased. By school year 2024-25, Cherry Hill should receive $29.3 million in state aid.

 

  • The overfunded districts are protesting in Trenton and lobbying to overturn this law. They have formed a coalition to challenge this law any way they can.

 

  • The Department of Education will not reveal the funding formula used to calculate and allocate state aid to the districts. It claims that the wealth calculations considered part of the formula are proprietary.

 

  • Part of the criticism of the overfunded districts is that, because the state has been allocating them more aid than they were due, they have been able to keep their property taxes low. As a result, their taxpayers do not have to pay their fair share of their schools’ budgets. 

 

  • In Cherry Hill, local taxpayers shoulder almost the entire burden. For the 2019-20 school year, 91.5% of the district budget came from local sources. The state contributed 8.5% of the budget (federal sources were negligible: 0.1% came from Medicaid reimbursements).

 

  • In overfunded districts like Washington Township, Toms River, Brick and Eastern Regional, the state covers anywhere from one fifth to one third of their school budgets.

 

  • Complicating the issue is the state’s 2% cap on property taxes. Even if these towns wished to raise their property taxes in order to contribute more to their school budgets, they are restricted by law to a 2% tax increase per year. Gov. Murphy vetoed a bill that would have exempted overfunded districts from this restriction.

 

  • One key factor as to why Cherry Hill has been underfunded is the notion that Cherry Hill is a wealthy community and can therefore afford the tax burden it has accumulated. This assumption is based on a study done in 2000 assigning Cherry Hill to District Factor Group GH (on a scale rated A to J, with A as the poorest and J the wealthiest). In 22 years, that assessment has not been reevaluated. 

 

  • In 2019-20, eight out of 19 Cherry Hill schools were Title 1 schools. A school is designated as a Title 1 school when 40% of its students qualify for Free and Reduced Lunch. Across the district, 18% of Cherry Hill students qualify for Free and Reduced Lunch (up from 15% in 2010). 

 

  • Cherry Hill also has 2,000 special education students with IEPs, requiring additional funding to appropriately address their educational needs. In 2018-19, Cherry Hill requested $3.6 million from the state for special education; it received $1.8 million in state aid. The actual amount Cherry Hill spent on special education in 2018-19 was $16.9 million. The state covered 10% of Cherry Hill’s special education needs. 

 

  • Another factor in the inequitable distribution of funds is the change in student populations. Districts like Toms River have experienced drops in enrollment, yet until the passage of S2, they did not see a reduction in funding. While state aid is supposed to follow the child, this has not been followed consistently or fairly.

 

  • Fair Funding for CHPS has worked alongside the Fair Funding Action Committee (FFAC), a coalition of underfunded districts that has been instrumental in getting S2 passed in Trenton. The group has been spearheaded by Kingsway and Chesterfield school districts, and it is a powerful voice in the battle on behalf of the underfunded districts. 

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