State Senate President Stephen Sweeney and fellow Democrats want to bring all schools to receive 100 percent formula aid funding.
EDISON -- While some school districts in New Jersey receive as much as 150 percent in school formula aid, others -- like New Brunswick, Woodbridge and Edison -- only receive 85 percent, according to state Senate Democrats.
State Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) doesn't believe the current formula is fair to all school districts and he is pushing for reform.
Sweeney and fellow Senate Democrats gathered at Middlesex County College on Wednesday as part of their continuing statewide tour to promote their school funding formula plan that would seek to bring all school districts statewide to 100 percent funding.
Under the plan, dubbed "Formula4 Success," school districts like New Brunswick, Woodbridge and Edison "would all receive an increase in aid to lift them to full funding, under the reform plan," according to a statement issued by Senate Democrats.
Sweeney, state Sen. Linda Greenstein (D-Bergen), state Sen. Patrick Diegnan (D- Middlesex), mayors, local officials and educators throughout the county held a roundtable at the college to "focus on the educational and fiscal value" of the reform plan, authored by Senate Democrats, that "would bring all the state's school districts to full funding."
"There are districts that are overfunded," Sweeney said in a telephone interview with NJ Advance Media on Wednesday. "What we are trying to create is a fair funding formula that in the end would (bring school districts) to 100 percent funding."
Each of Middlesex County's 25 school districts would "gain additional state aid under the proposed School Funding Reform Act, which would provide full funding to the school systems throughout the state," according to a statement from the Senate Democrats.
The plan, according to Senate Democrats, would "remedy a school funding system that has left 80 percent of New Jersey's school district's underfunded, bringing all districts to full funding within five years with a boost of $100 million annually."
New Brunswick would receive an additional $23 million.
State Senate Democrats maintain that the state has failed to adequately fund the current school formula, and has therefore "shortchanged all types of school districts," including those in suburban districts, said Greenstein in the statement.
The plan would amend the 2008 School Funding Reform Act, a weighted formula that allocates state aid to districts based on student enrollment, demographics and other factors, according to a previous report.
Sweeney believes their proposal would bring fairness and common sense to school districts throughout the state.
Sweeney, in the statement, said the state Legislature had originally gotten the formula right back in 2008 but that the state did not live up to its promise.
Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find the Find NJ.com on Facebook.