Jersey City Schools To Lose Most State Aid Of All NJ Districts

JERSEY CITY, NJ — New Jersey's Department of Education released its funding figures for the next school year on Thursday, sending $12.1 billion to the state's nearly 600 districts.

The Jersey City schools will receive the biggest cut, in terms of actual dollars — $4 million less in aid next year than this year.

Percentage-wise, though, it's not as big a cut as many others. The Jersey City schools serve around 27,000 kids, with a $1 billion budget. See those figures here.

Superintendent Norma Fernandez told Patch, "The district has kept a balanced budget despite the reduction in state funding during the last two years thanks to the maintenance of equity funds and Equalization Aid. The reductions in funding together with the rising cost of benefits, salaries, and utilities leave us with a shortfall of approximately $142 million. To address this deficit, we will make some personnel decisions and utilize the bank cap. Our goal is to impact the classroom as little as possible."

175 districts will grapple with cuts to funding next year, some of whom had increases in previous years. 392 districts will receive increased funding and seven will get the same funding.

The Cape May City Schools are seeing the largest percentage cut, 27.29 percent. Newark Public Schools are getting a $75 million increase in aid.

Read more about the state's schools and state aid here.

Read more about Jersey City's public schools here.

Patch Editor Karen Wall contributed reporting for this story.