Governor Announces Plan to Increase School Funding

Furthering Governor Christie's commitment to providing the resources and reform to improve education for every New Jersey child, the Christie Administration announced today the allocation plan for $850 million in new aid authorized for New Jersey schools in the Fiscal Year 2012 Budget.

This commitment to education includes the Governor’s initial $250 million increase for all school districts, as well as an additional $450 million for the Abbott districts, and an additional $150 million for non-Abbott districts. With this new funding, total state aid to education will be higher in Fiscal Year 2012 than it was when Governor Christie took office. 

In last year's 2010-11 budget, Berkeley Heights did not receive any funds, but were set to receive $426,204. With the latest announcement, the district will receive another $426,205 for a total of $852,409.

Mountainside received $58,067 last year, which was increased to $202,718 in this year's budget. with another $144,651 added to the allocation, Mountainside will receive $347, 369, a change of $289,302 from last year.

“This year, New Jersey increased state aid to school districts by $850 million over last year, restoring every dollar of the cuts we were forced to make last year and increasing aid by an additional $30 million. We are keeping faith with our commitment to New Jersey’s children and families, spending more money per pupil on New Jersey’s students than almost any other state in the country,” said Governor Christie. “Now is the time to complement the dollars spent with real education reform to bring a focus on student learning, accountability and results.”

Today’s funding includes an additional $450 million for the 31 Abbott districts, which fully funds them under the School Funding Reform Act formula, and an additional $150 million for non-Abbott districts, doubling the increase that the Governor had already approved in February as part of his Fiscal Year 2012 Budget. This increase in education aid will provide important property tax relief to New Jerseyans as the state increases its support for local schools.

"Being able to provide additional education funding to districts this year further affirms this Administration’s commitment to ensuring each and every child in New Jersey receives a quality education," said Acting Education Commissioner Chris Cerf. "It is now time to focus on aggressive education reform, concentrating on improving standards, assessments, and curriculum; strengthening the use of performance and accountability data; improving educator effectiveness; and investing in innovative models of educational delivery."

Governor Christie is committed to making 2011 the year of education reform. He has put forward a Reform Agenda that brings necessary and long overdue changes to the public education system that focuses on accountability, makes teacher effectiveness and student achievement the driving forces behind public policies and practices, empowers parents with greater school choice, and expands high quality public charter schools in New Jersey to ensure that every child in our state has access to a quality education and achieves the results they deserve.

The county and school district allocation lists can be viewed at: http://www.state.nj.us/education/stateaid/1112/