Edison Schools Will See $11.8M Increase In State Aid

EDISON, NJ — Edison Township Public Schools is all set to see an increase of 32.80 percent to its school budget for the Fiscal Year 2023. This figure is among the highest in New Jersey.

Earlier this month, Gov. Phil Murphy's administration proposed $19.2 billion for New Jersey pre-K to 12 schools for the Fiscal Year 2023 budget. This includes an additional $649.8 million for K-12 aid to put K-12 "formula" aid at $9.92 billion.

Edison school district will get a total of $47,595,461 in state aid from Murphy’s budget – that's an increase of 11,756,093 from the previous year. For the 2022 school year, the district got $35,839,368

Murphy was at the James Monroe Elementary School in Edison to highlight his budget plan. He was joined by Edison Mayor Sam Joshi and Acting Education Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillan.

“Edison Township is thankful for the $11.8 million year-over-year increase in funding for our schools,” Joshi said. “The Murphy Administration and state Legislators are terrific partners in our educational mission.”

School Superintendent Bernie Bragen and Board of Education President Doug Schneider too thanked Murphy.

“We are extremely grateful for these significant increases in State aid to our schools, their impact will resonate in our community for years to come,” Bragen said.

Schneider said the funds will go towards renovations and solving the problem of overcrowding in schools.

“The Board is excited for the opportunity to obtain and strategically spend this increased state aid without putting the burden on our local property taxes. In cooperation with our administration, we can finally push forward with the renovations and solving the overcrowding in our schools,” Schneider said.

Here’s how the funds broke down:

• Equalizing aid: 32, 832,597
• Transportation aid: 4,964,654
• Special education aid: 8,719, 977
• Security aid: 1,078, 233

New Jersey's school-funding formula for state aid comes from S2 — a controversial law passed in 2018 that modified how the state determines to allocate its funding for each district. FY2023 would be the fifth of seven state budgets that S2 will impact.

"The demographics of the state were out of sync to where the money was headed," Murphy said. "So we agreed to S2, which has a seven-year catch-up to where the demographics are in the state."

State aid is an influential factor in a district's decisions on raising local property taxes. Many say that aid cuts or flat spending each year give them cause to raise what are already the highest property taxes in the country.

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