School District Gets Slight Increase In State Aid For 2014-2015 School Year

The Franklin Township school district will receive about $13.2 million in state aid in the 2014-2015 school year, a 1.2 percent increase over this year’s aid.

State aid to the district was flat for the 2013-2014 school year, coming in at the same $12,991,848 as in the 2012-2013 school year. The district saw a $1.4 million bump – nearly 12 percent – from 2011-2012’s $11,620,172  to 2012-2013’s amount, though.

For 2014-2015, individual aid figures remained the same as in 2013-2014 in categories such as Equalization Aid ($5,653,674); Transportation Aid ($797,701); Special Education Aid ($4,979,869); Security Aid ($1,560,604); PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) Readiness Aid ($80,870) and Per Pupil Growth Aid ($80,870).

The only difference was in the category of Additional Adjustment Aid, in which the district received $161,740 for the next school year.

The aid to the district is part of a statewide $12.9 billion aid package announced Feb. 27 by Gov. Chris Christie, as part of his Fiscal Year 2015 budget. That figure includes $9 billion in direct aid to state schools, according to a press release about the funding.

According to the press release, PARCC is “a consortium of 18 states collaborating to develop a common set of K-12 English and math assessments that reflect the core standards that determine college and career readiness. The PARCC assessments, which tap the same technologies that students often already use in the classroom as part of a 21st century education, will replace the existing paper-and-pencil NJ ASK and HSPA tests by the spring of 2015. Schools that are fully prepared for technology demands can use the funding stream for any other general fund budget item, at the local school board’s discretion.”

The Per Pupil Growth Aid “can be used for virtually any general fund budget item,” according to the release. “The decision on where to spend these funds will be made at the local level.”

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