The Cherry Hill, Lenape Regional, Eastern Regional and Medford Lakes school districts face the maximum 3% reduction in New Jersey school aid in the coming year, according to data released Thursday by the state Education Department.
Before the release, state officials promised any reductions would not be more than 3% so school district officials could begin budgeting with some knowledge of aid ahead of time.
The breakdown for every district in Burlington and Camden counties appears at the end of this article.
"This is really a core part of that, providing that stability year to year," state Education Commissioner Kevin Dehmer said recently. The 3% guarantee does not include fluctuations from year-to-year enrollment changes in each district, he noted.
The decline in aid between fiscal-year 2025 and fiscal-year 2026 means cuts of $884,317 in Cherry Hill, $567,953 in Lenape Regional, $285,726 in Eastern Regional and $41,162 in Medford Lakes.
Others in the area will get a 6% boost in aid including Evesham ($405,277), Medford ($279,077), Moorestown ($374,858) and Mount Laurel ($458,213). Aid to Voorhees will go up by 4%, or $220,767.
"Our annual budget is a reflection of our values and, here in New Jersey, we value a quality education for every student," Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement. "The funding we provide to support school communities translates to stronger, safer, and more dynamic learning environments. We remain committed to working in close collaboration with local school districts to provide our students with the opportunities they need to succeed and to help build a stronger, fairer New Jersey."
Across New Jersey, state aid — accounting for more than one-third of the entire state budget — will increase $387,191,260 between the fiscal years to $12,055,398,333 in 2026, up 3.32%.
Among all districts, 391 will have increases in aid, 175 will have decreases and seven will remain unchanged from year to year. The median increase for all districts was 6% and the median decrease was 3%.
Besides letting districts know ahead of time that decreases would not exceed 3%, the state also did several other things to provide more stability to school district budgeting. This includes, according to the state:
- Using multiple years of property valuation and income measures to bring greater stability to the formula's measure of a community’s capacity to support its education costs.
- Ensuring that the formula's measure of the costs necessary to educate students to the state's academic standards includes mental health and up-to-date school security resources.
- Calculating special education aid using special education enrollment, replacing the use of a census-based method.
- Providing a mechanism for additional flexibility in the tax levy growth limitation for some districts.
