Andrzejczak attempts to head off attacks over school funding

State Sen. Bob Andrzejczak introduced a measure that would essentially freeze changes made last to how the state follows its school funding aid formula in an apparent attempt to get ahead of it as a campaign issue.

The bill would guarantee that school districts receive at least as much aid as they did for the 2019-2020 school year until 2025.

“South Jersey is struggling,” Andrzejczak said. “Unlike the wealthier parts of the state, we simply cannot raise property taxes to make up for the loss of state funding. This bill will ensure we maintain our education standards, retain our teachers and give our children the best opportunities we can. I hope other senators will join me in sponsoring this legislation.”

Andrzejczak’s district — the only one in the state with a senate election this year — will receive some of the largest cuts in the state.

Eleven of the 100 districts that saw the largest cuts to state aid as a result of the new funding plan fall in the first legislative district, said Micah Rasmussen, director of Rider University’s Rebovich Institute. In total, the district will lose about $4.5 million in state aid.

“Lower township got a nasty one-two punch. They lost $1 million in state aid for its K-8 district, and then they lost an additional $750,000 for its regional high school district,” Rasmussen said. “They are rallying. They are really up in arms right now about a one-year loss of almost $2 million in their town.”

By introducing a bill that would negate those losses for several years, Andrzejczak and his Assembly running mates, Assemblymen Matt Milam and Bruce Land, may be able to boost their campaign chances, both by showing action on an issue that Republicans will certainly seize on in their campaigns and by creating some distance between themselves and Trenton Democrats.

Though Andrzejczak did not peg a cost to the bill, Rasmussen estimates that it would cost at least $90 million. That price tag, combined with legislative leaders resistance to new taxes in this year’s budget, make its chances of reaching Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk all but non-existent.

Despite that, it might still provide him some cover from his opponent’s attacks, though it wouldn’t be a perfect fix.

“At home, he can say to his constituents ‘I’ve got a bill in the legislature to fix this,’” Rasmussen said. That’s what he can say. A constituent can then say the next question, which is ‘how likely is your bill to get passed?”

Cumberland County Republican Chairman Michael Testa is running against Andrzejczak for the remainder of Rep. Jeff Van Drew’s unexpired term in the State Senate, and he’s already attempted to tie the incumbent senator to Trenton’s Democratic leadership.

Andrzejczak was appointed to Van Drew’s seat when the latter left the State Senate for Congress. Milam was appointed to fill Andrzejczak’s Assembly seat.

Rasmussen said Andrzejczak’s bill likely wouldn’t do much to protect him from those attacks.

“I think that Testa’s response to Andrzejczak saying ‘I sponsored a bill’ would likely be ‘you sponsored a bill, but that doesn’t change the fact that these districts have still lost this funding,’” Rasmussen said. “In other words, he wants to look at results.”

But those attacks aren’t a huge vulnerability for Andrzejczak because the school funding formula predates his tenure in the legislature, Rasmussen said.

The formula was passed into law in 2008, years before Andrzejczak joined the Assembly in 2013.

“I think the upshot is Testa can certainly attack him for the end result, which is the loss of the funds in those school districts,” Rasmussen said. “But I think it’s entirely appropriate for Andrzejczak to say that the formula for state funding for school districts that existed long before he was there is not something that he’s responsible for.”