NJ School Aid For 2025-26: How Much Did East Brunswick Get?

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — On Thursday, the state Department of Education released the 2025-26 state funding figures.

It includes $12.1 billion to 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.

So where does East Brunswick stand? For the 2025-26 school year, East Brunswick Public Schools will see a loss of 3 percent in school aid.

The district will receive $37,350,708 from the state, $1,155,177 less than what they received during the last school year, which was $38,505,885.

Here’s the breakdown of funds for the 2025-26 school year:

• Equalization Aid: $18,971,109
• Transportation Aid: $4,838,120
• Special Education Aid: $11,678,772
• Security Aid: $1,862,707

New Jersey's record $58.1 billion proposed budget includes $12.1 billion for school funding, part of what Gov. Phil 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."

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 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.

What’s 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 East Brunswick Board of Education is scheduled to meet on March 3.

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