Asbury Park school taxes have increased more over the last seven years than any other New Jersey town, according to a new analysis by the Asbury Park Press which found the city’s average school tax bill increased from $1,280 in 2015 to $2,220 in 2021, a 73% hike.

Why? Asbury Park Mayor John Moor says the school district is “mismanaged,” which won’t be a surprise to NJ Ed Report readers. “More administrators than any district of that size in New Jersey, totally top heavy, ridiculous spending,” he said. “It is killing the city.” Moor added the City Council has tried to work with district officials but to no avail: “We have bent over backwards trying to work with them with very little success.”

In response, Asbury Park Superintendent Rashawn Adams told the Press, “During my tenure as superintendent, our district’s state aid was reduced by $8.6 million last year. As a district, we have made significant staffing reductions to minimize the impact on taxpayers.”

Is that true?

Certainly state aid has dropped as our school funding system adjusts itself to new enrollment figures and the drawn-out process of eliminating “hold harmless” aid for districts that are historically overfunded–like Asbury Park, which next year will spend $30,588  per student.  And Adams is correct: there have been reductions in staff. Last April the Board accepted Adams’ recommendation to lay off 28 staff members and over the last several years teachers have fled. There have been other cost-saving decisions, like closing Barack Obama Elementary School and merging the middle and high school, although that’s attributable more to a sharp drop in enrollment-–the district serves only 1,385 students and has lost 600 kids in six years–as parents vote with their feet.

Who can blame them? According to the most recent data two out of three Asbury Park High School graduates don’t enroll in any postsecondary program,   51% of students were chronically absent, 91% of high school students failed the most recent state Algebra test,, and 84% of 4th-graders failed the reading test.

Parents and staff members have been telling me for years that the state should shut the district down and enroll the students who remain in Neptune Public Schools, right next door and with far better student outcomes. Maybe that time is now.

Explainer: How Are Schools Funded in New Jersey, and Why Are My Property Taxes So High?