Cape May County to Receive $3 Million in Additional School Funding for Fiscal Year 2012

TRENTON – Furthering Governor Christie’s commitment to providing the resources and reform to improve education for every New Jersey child, the Christie Administration announced the allocation plan for $3 million in new aid authorized for Cape May County schools in the Fiscal Year 2012 Budget. This allocation brings the total funding for Cape May County schools to $61 million, more than $5 million than last year. Statewide, the Governor increased school aid by more than $850 million over last year.
“This year, New Jersey increased state aid to Cape May County by $5 million, and to school districts across the state by $850 million over last year, restoring every dollar of the cuts we were forced to make last year and adding additional aid. We are keeping faith with our commitment to New Jersey’s children and families, spending more money per pupil on New Jersey’s students than almost any other state in the country,” said Governor Christie. “Now is the time to complement the dollars spent with real education reform to bring a focus on student learning, accountability and results.”
Yesterday’s statewide funding includes an additional $450 million for the 31 Abbott districts, which fully funds them under the School Funding Reform Act formula, and an additional $150 million for non-Abbott districts, doubling the increase that the Governor had already approved in February as part of his Fiscal Year 2012 Budget. This increase in education aid will provide important property tax relief to New Jerseyans as the state increases its support for local schools.
“Being able to provide additional education funding to districts this year further affirms this Administration’s commitment to ensuring each and every child in New Jersey receives a quality education,” said Acting Education Commissioner Chris Cerf. “It is now time to focus on aggressive education reform, concentrating on improving standards, assessments, and curriculum; strengthening the use of performance and accountability data; improving educator effectiveness; and investing in innovative models of educational delivery.”
Governor Christie is committed to making 2011 the year of education reform. He has put forward a Reform Agenda that brings necessary and long overdue changes to the public education system that focuses on accountability, makes teacher effectiveness and student achievement the driving forces behind public policies and practices, empowers parents with greater school choice, and expands high quality public charter schools in New Jersey to ensure that every child in our state has access to a quality education and achieves the results they deserve.