For the past five school years, the Stafford Township School District has lost more than $1.8 million in New Jersey Department of Education aid. The cut for this school year alone was nearly $580,000, and two years ago Stafford lost about $515,000.

State aid cuts aren’t particularly unusual, given the fact dozens of districts throughout the state, during the course of the past 10 to 15 years, have had cycles in which their aid had been trimmed down, for varying and mostly unknown reasons.