School Chief Tells Van Drew: NJ Aid Cuts Harm Local Pupils

AVALON – The severe reduction in school aid to virtually all Cape May County school districts, in the wake of the state budget passage, was among the topics discussed at the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce Legislative Update Aug. 16 at Icona Golden Inn.
Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-1st), a member of the Senate Budget Committee, explained why he voted against the state’s $37-billion spending plan.
He said that both First District Assemblymen Robert Andrzejczak and Bruce Land also cast no votes against the budget in the lower house.
When Van Drew ended his remarks, Superintendent Christopher Kobik of Lower Cape May Regional School District, which has over 1,300 students in grades 7-12, spoke.
He noted the “very accurate description” that Van Drew used to depict the problem and added, “Probably most important is that social conditions for children in Cape May County are much different than they are for children upstate in many other communities.
“While taxes may be higher in the wealthier sections of New Jersey, social conditions are certainly different for those children.
“There’s a reason we need additional funding for students in Cape May County. We have the highest unemployment rate in the state. The highest percentage of senior citizens in the state. The median household income is one of the lowest in the state.
“Nearly 40 percent of the students in Cape May County participate in free and reduced lunches. With a number of districts, over 50 percent of state aid provides 25 percent of the general funds of the schools in the county.
“Of the total state aid received in the county, 38 percent of it is planned to be cut. And that’s for all schools with the exception of the county Vocational School.
“Since the commencement of the school funding formula, the cost of educating students has increased while categorical aid has been frozen. The SFRA, the school funding formula, is flawed. Touting the virtues of getting back to what it should be is not doing Cape May County any good.
“My only question will be, moving forward, can we pull together.
“It will be devastating to the children in Cape May County,” ended Kobik.
“I couldn’t have said it better,” replied Van Drew.
Before that, Van Drew cited something called “Fair Share.” He asked if anyone in the room had heard of it, no one had, with the exception of Kobik.
He explained that the majority of school districts in the county, on the mainland, were deemed by the drafters of the legislation as places where taxpayers were not paying their fair share of taxes.
That fact, Van Drew said, was in comparison to northern counties where property taxes, and household incomes, in general, are higher than the majority of those in Cape May County.
“The problem is, we don’t have the votes, we don’t have the numbers to overturn this, because it is a landfall of money for some people,” Van Drew continued.
“I want the folks who don’t think we are paying our fair share to come down here, look you in the face and say that you’re not paying your fair share of taxes.”
He cited property taxes and household incomes in Bergen County where tax bills may range from $15,000 to $30,000 annually. Property values are higher in those bedroom communities of New York City.
Incomes there, too, are far higher than in Cape May County, Van Drew noted. He said it is not unusual for a two-income family to have both spouses earning six-figure incomes.
Assemblyman Andrzejczak
Andrzejczak addressed issues including the $15 minimum wage and legalized marijuana.
He acknowledged that many of the business owners present “Are very concerned about that, and you should be.”
He said there are many ideas regarding that amount.
While Gov. Phil Murphy made it one of his landmark campaign issues, the assemblyman said, “For South Jersey, our district, where we are, we can’t afford that. A lot of businesses are mom-and-pop shops. They are very much small business, so bumping that minimum wage up to $15 you’re going to hurt a lot of industries or they’ll just go out of business.”
“Where we are economically, we don’t need any more impacts like that,” he continued.
On the subject of legalized marijuana, Andrzejczak said he solidly supports medical marijuana, but he is not in favor of recreational marijuana.
He admitted that he had been “on the fence” for quite a while on the topic, but that a seminar in Ocean City, during which a speaker who had visited Colorado, where the drug is legal, told of the many drawbacks, he had changed his mind.
While he acknowledged the vast sum, after filtering the money to various sectors the result would produce little for the general fund.
He said after considering the additional costs of law enforcement and security, motor vehicle crashes, and the opioid problem the state is experiencing, adding marijuana to the list was not good.
However, he advocated decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
One of the bills he sponsored which were recently signed by the governor was to add $1.2 million for marine fisheries to help expand the commercial fishing industry.
Assemblyman Land
Land, who got to speak at about an hour into the program, said one thing he had learned as a freshman in the Legislature was that many there knew little if anything about Cape May County.
What they garnered is likely from a stay in a resort hotel or walking on a boardwalk. He stressed the billions of dollars that the county generates annually that bolsters the state’s coffers.
“We’re not getting our fair share down here,” he said of state funding. “We’re trying hard to get some of that money back down here.”
The retired correction officer said that, if a bill “came up tomorrow for recreational marijuana I would vote no. If a bill for $15 an hour minimum wage would be up tomorrow, I would be a no vote. That doesn’t mean I can’t change if I listened to a lot of people’s ideas.”