NJ School Funding: See How Much Manchester, Lakehurst Are Receiving

MANCHESTER, NJ — The Manchester Township and Lakehurst Borough school districts are slated to receive an increase in state funding, under preliminary aid figures released by the New Jersey Department of Education on Thursday.

The education department released the figures in the wake of the preliminary budget announced by Gov. Phil Murphy for the 2025 fiscal year.

Many districts are receiving additional funding in the 2024-25 budget, among them Manchester and Lakehurst. In Manchester Township, an 11.44 percent increase is proposed, with the district to receive $5,986,685, an increase of $614,621. Lakehurst Borough would receive $7,773,019, an increase of $908,710 over the $6,864,309 it received for 2023-24.

Manchester and Lakehurst are among 11 districts in Ocean County that are seeing increases in aid. Of the remainder, 17 are receiving cuts and one — the Ocean County Vocational Technical District — is seeing its funding stay the same as last year's amount.

Both districts are set to receive aid under the Preschool Expansion Grant program. Manchester is set to receive $3,395,700, and Lakehurst is supposed to receive

In his budget address Tuesday, Murphy said the proposed $55.9 billion spending plan included $11.7 billion for public school funding that he said fully funds the school funding formula for the first time.

That formula was part of the School Funding Reform Act of 2008, which aimed to address school funding inequities. While many districts have received additional funding, more than 200 have seen aid cuts yearly since 2018, as a result of the revision to the SFRA known as S2 that was signed into law by Murphy. (S2 got its start in 2017, when then-Gov. Chris Christie and then-Senate President Stephen Sweeney made a deal that swapped the increase in the gasoline tax Christie wanted for cuts in state aid to districts that had been receiving adjustment aid.)

The 2024-25 fiscal year is supposed to be the last year of S2 and its cuts, but so far a new funding formula has not been put forth.

Overall, Ocean County saw the greatest reduction in aid of any of the 21 counties, with a 6.65 percent reduction in aid overall. Monmouth County saw a 2.89 percent reduction in aid to its schools, and Cape May County saw a 2.21 percent reduction. All of the other counties saw an overall increase in aid.

Read more:

• New NJ School Aid Amounts Released: Who's Getting More?
• 5 Big Takeaways From Murphy's Budget Address