NJ voters weigh in on school budgets

Districts cut programs and raise taxes to fill gaps left by state

The voters are headed to the polls in New Jersey to pick school board members and approve tight district budgets.

820 million dollars in state funding has been cut from school district budgets statewide in New Jersey. In Haddonfield, which has been pointed to by studies as one of the top districts in the state, it would mean over 200 dollars added to the tax bills of residents.

Ryan Sparrow has four children in Haddonfield public schools and says he moved there because of the educational opportunities even though he’s paying over 10 thousand dollars a year in property taxes.

“Could have picked anywhere we looked at a lot of different communities here and we chose Haddonfield because of the school system. When I was in the Midwest and we (my kids) went to private school. That’s our justification for it.”

Haddonfield faced over a million dollars in cuts, and the budget includes privatizing custodial services to make up part of the cuts.