Highland Park School District came out a big winner in Gov. Phil Murphy’s $531 billion budget proposal with an increase in funding of 34.2 percent. The proposed state aid for 2023/24 HP School District is $6,416,165, an increase of $1,636,138 or 34.2 percent.
The biggest slice of Gov. Phil Murphy’s budget proposal for the next fiscal year is state funding for public education. And the biggest slice of that is direct aid to local schools. Funding is set to increase for 400-plus districts, but 157 districts face cuts. Highland Park received one of the largest percentage increases, after its state and local representatives made a persistent and data driven case for the aid increase.
The NJ Department of Education noted that the proposed budget contained $830 million in additional aid statewide, for a total record-high of $20.5 billion in school funding. The budget is a continuation of a deal struck six years ago by Murphy and the Democratic-led Legislature to fully fund the state’s school funding formula. That has come with big increases for some districts and big cuts for others.