Lawrence School District To Gain $793K In State Aid For 2023-24

LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ — Last week Gov Phil Murphy’s administration proposed its fiscal year 2024 budget and more than 400 New Jersey school districts will receive increased state funding, including Lawrence Township.

Lawrence Township Public School will get a total of $6,442,083 in state aid for the 2023-24 school year. That's an increase of 14.04 percent or $793,012 from 2022-23 when the school district got a total of $5,649,071.

Murphy proposed an additional $834.4 million in state school aid in his 2024 budget, bringing the total in formula aid to $10.75 billion. Murphy also proposes an additional $109 million towards the state’s universal preschool program.

“This support is also critical not just for keeping our public schools the envy of the nation – and lifting up others – but it will also help districts and educators continue to turn around the learning loss we know occurred when the pandemic forced our students to move to remote learning,” Murphy said during the announcement.

The school aid is based on the controversial S2 funding formula passed in 2018.

The governor defended S2, saying the funding formula had to change to address inequities within the state. However, critics have pointed to the losses in state aid among many school districts, which has resulted in cuts while other districts get increases.

FY2024 would be the sixth of seven state budgets that S2 will impact. The State Republicans have criticized the 2024 school funding.

"It’s shockingly destructive and completely indefensible when his administration is sitting on a $10 billion surplus that could support our schools and prevent huge property tax increases on families that are barely getting by," Republican Senator Michael Testa (R-NJ1) said in a statement.

State Republicans unveiled their own plan to fully fund schools, which they also say will lower property taxes around the state, last week. This plan uses the state’s $6.5 billion surplus and requires local governments to lower property taxes dollar for dollar, GOP legislators said. Read more about that proposal here.

School district aid is an influential factor when deciding property taxes. Many districts say that cuts, or even flat spending, force them to raise taxes for local homeowners.

While Murphy's budget is merely a proposal, the state-aid figures provide school districts with a roadmap for developing their 2023-24 school year budgets.

(With reporting from Michelle Rotuno-Johnson)