On Tuesday, March 2, the New Jersey Department of Education released state aid notices to school districts for 2017-2018. The figures show that no district will receive less in aid than last year.
State aid numbers can be found here: http://www.state.nj.us/education/stateaid/1718/district.pdf
Governor Chris Christie proposed the 2017-2018 budget on Feb. 28. It totals $35.5 billion, which represents a 2.6 percent increase from the current year. However, most of the increase is dedicated toward pension contributions; $8.8 billion in all.
Education spending is proposed to increase to $13.83 billion (from $13.3 billion) but again, most of this increase is dedicated to pension payments and other non-direct state aid items.
Of the total school aid, almost $9.2 billion represents direct aid to schools, an increase of $16.1 million.
Additionally during the governor’s budget address, he called on the leaders of the Legislature to work with him over the next 100 days to develop a new funding formula. The Governor stated that he “make[s] a pledge…to work with the leaders of the Legislature to come up with a new funding formula. Everything is on the table. No idea out of bounds for discussion. I am willing to work with you to solve this problem without any pre-conditions on the ideas brought to the table.”