OCEAN TOWNSHIP, N.J. – Democrats in Trenton are fighting with one another quite a bit these days, and there’s a strong possibility of a FY 2020 budget impasse, but one area where they still agree: the suburbs should fully fund urban education.
11th Legislative District GOP challengers Mike Amoroso and Matt Woolley tried to press this point on Monday, calling on Governor Murphy and the Democrat legislature to restore $65 million in school funding that’s slated to be taken from ten LD11 school districts by 2025.
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“When staff and programs are cut, students and teachers are hurt, and the quality of education drops. We must restore full funding to our affected school districts,” said Amoroso in a campaign press release.
A recent Murphy-Sweeney compromise to tinker with the school funding formula continues to penalize suburban taxpayers. The affected districts are Allenhurst, Asbury Park, Deal, Eatontown, Freehold Regional, Monmouth Regional, Neptune City, Neptune Township, Ocean Township and Tinton Falls; cumulatively, they’re slated to lose $10 million in just 2020. But Sweeney’s faction wants to explore the consolidation of school districts, a move which some believe could put downward pressure on suburban property taxes.
LD11 encompasses the Monmouth County towns of Allenhurst Borough, Asbury Park City, Colts Neck Township, Deal Borough, Eatontown Borough, Freehold Borough, Freehold Township, Interlaken Borough, Loch Arbour Village, Long Branch City, Neptune City Borough, Neptune Township, Ocean Township, Red Bank Borough, Shrewsbury Borough, Shrewsbury Township, Tinton Falls Borough and West Long Branch Borough.
The district had all-Republican representation until 2015 when Democrats took out both GOP Assembly members; in 2017, Democrat Vin Gopal finished the job by retiring long-time Republican legislator and then-incumbent state Senator Jennifer Beck.
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