Opinion ID: 2294246
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 37

Heading: Adjustment Aid

Text: For the transition to SFRA, Adjustment Aid enables districts spending above adequacy to maintain their current level of spending without significant tax levy increases or reductions in programs and services. N.J.S.A. 18A:7F-58; see also D-1 at ¶ 43; see also Attwood, 5 T 72:6-22. Specifically, Adjustment Aid provides funding to ensure no district in the state would receive less aid in the 2008/2009 school year than it received in a previous year and plus two percent. Attwood, 5 T 72:18-22. The funding then continues in subsequent years, so that no district receives less than its 2008-2009 aid, absent a significant decrease in the district's enrollment. N.J.S.A. 18A:7F-58(a)(2)(3). It should be noted, beginning in 2009-2010, and continuing in 2010-2011, total aid does not increase funding to many districts by way of a CPI adjustment or otherwise. See P-40. Such flat funding, as many of the plaintiffs' witnesses refer to it, is a major source of concern to the Abbott districts. It is asserted flat funding would not ensure districts could continue their current programs, as the costs of salaries and benefits alone increase, on average, 4% per year. [30] In short, Adjustment Aid is provided if the sum of a district's equalization aid, security aid, special education categorical aid, extraordinary aid, and transportation aid  essentially, state aid  is less than the district's 2007-2008 spending plus two-percent. If the current year's aid is indeed less, the district receives adjustment aid for the difference. [31] Adjust Aid = (07-08 State Aid × 1.02)  (Equalization Aid + Security Aid + Special Education Categorical Aid + Extraordinary Aid + Transportation Aid) = ($382,779,688 × 1.02)  ($317,511,140 + $9,616,794 + $13,122,932 + $1,328,889 + $2,886,325) = $390,435,282-$344,466,080 = $45,969,202