See Which NJ Schools Will Get More State Aid For 2025-26

TRENTON, NJ — When Gov. Phil Murphy announced his 2025-26 budget on Tuesday, among the promises he made was changes to New Jersey's school funding to eliminate wild swings in state aid to the state's nearly 600 school districts.

The record $58.1 billion proposed budget includes $12.1 billion for school funding, part of what Murphy said is his administration's "ongoing and unrelenting commitment to building a New Jersey that is stronger, fairer, and more prepared for the future."

On Thursday, the state Department of Education released the 2025-26 state funding figures, showing how that $12.1 billion will support the state's K-12 schools. There are 392 districts slated to receive increased funding, 175 seeing funding cuts and seven districts whose aid amount is the same as 2024-25.

The largest cut in dollar amount is the Jersey City Schools, which are receiving $4 million less in 2025-26. The Cape May City Schools are seeing the largest percentage cut, 27.29 percent, with a $444,752 reduction in aid.

Newark Public Schools are receiving a $75 million increase in aid for 2025-26, a 6 percent increase to $1.326 billion in aid, and the largest percentage increases in aid are to Beach Haven, of 19.3 percent, and the Central Regional School District in Ocean County, slated to receive an additional $1.004 million, an 18 percent increase to $6.57 million.

The bulk of the districts seeing reductions are cut by 3 percent, while most of the districts seeing increases are getting a 6 percent bump, which Murphy and the Department of Education had indicated would be in place.

It would be the second year that the state has fully funded the K-12 school funding formula as established under the School Funding Reform Act of 2008 and modified in 2017 by S2, the legislation passed that cut so-called "adjustment aid" from some districts around the state while increasing aid to others that had been underfunded.

The 2024-25 budget also fully funded the formula, but for districts targeted by S2, the last seven budgets have resulted in drastic cuts to funding that significantly exceeded the preliminary calculations they had made based on what they knew of the formula.

For 2025-26, Murphy also promised districts that their state aid would decrease only by 3 percent or less from last year's amount, in certain categories. For districts that have received more, the increase would be a maximum of 6 percent, according to an NJ Spotlight report.

The drastic swings have led to supplemental legislation to try to assist districts faced with deep cuts, including last year's one-time permission to some districts to seek a 9.9 percent increase in their property tax levy — exceeding the 2 percent cap instituted in 2010 under then-Gov. Chris Christie. It also has led to a larger outcry over changes in demands on school budgets that have altered the landscape for public schools that culminated in public hearings called by the state education department in January and earlier in February on school funding.

One of the key pressures on school budgets: Special education. Under the previous funding mechanisms, special education funding was calculated based on New Jersey's average disability classification rate. Under Murphy's proposal, districts would receive special education funding based on the number of students in their districts who have special education classifications, the New Jersey Spotlight report said. Those students need additional assistance, from in-class aides to specialized classes, at a higher cost to districts.

Also slated to change would be how the state calculates local fair share — the amount of money a school district's community is expected to contribute to its budget via property taxes. That figure is calculated based on a complicated formula that looks at property values and community income, and has seen drastic changes for some communities, especially in the post-COVID years.

Murphy's budget includes a proposal to move to three-year averages for property wealth and income to calculate local fair share, the NJ Spotlight report said.

The aid figures for every district in New Jersey are below.