Governor Murphy hit the road today to begin selling his 53.1 billion dollar budget plan to the public and the lawmakers who will have to sign off on it he's starting by touting the record state aid he proposed for K-12 schools money the administration argues is indirect property tax relief that may be the case for districts who stand to gain but a senior correspondent Joanna gagas reports every dollar taken away from other school districts could likely push their property taxes higher Statewide we are increasing K-12 classroom funding by 832 million dollars to a total of nearly 11 billion dollars Governor Murphy joined with State education leaders in Montgomery today to announce the details of his proposed education funding plan for fiscal year 2024. here in Montgomery Township state aid is going to increase by more than one million dollars a more than 15 percent increase from this current year the Department of Education today released the funding amounts each district will receive in the next fiscal year those numbers coming from the school funding formula a plan aimed at more equitably Distributing school aid to all districts in the state the funding plan was tied up in the courts for years before Murphy's first term but this will now be the sixth year his administration has worked toward fully funding it looking back to where Montgomery Township Schools were in my first year as Governor we will have so far increased funding for the district by 84 here at Montgomery Township we are proud to be offering full day kindergarten for the for our students for the first time beginning next school year Montgomery superintendent Mary McLaughlin announced several academic programs her district will launch with the Inc increased funding Montgomery Township has established a beyond the school day program that provides skill specific tutoring to students based on Core Curriculum standards aligned data but it's not good news for all districts in the state today many stand to lose Millions at a time when they're already facing teacher shortages reductions in programs along with other challenges it looks like we're being reduced about 6.7 million dollars in this budget we had anticipated somewhere north of two million dollars and so we've now got a a budget hole that's fairly massive Freehold among 157 districts to lose funding Jersey City is seeing the greatest loss A Drop of 51 million which is about a 28 cut 13 districts will see no change and 407 will see funding increases Newark topping the chart with a 114 million dollar bump Bridget de Souza heads an advocacy group in Jersey City fighting for more state and local funding she understands why her district is facing Cuts but still says from a child in Jersey City Public Schools this is all grossly unfair uh from the perspective of losing teachers going to school in buildings that are crumbling Bruce Baker who's now in Miami has been a thought leader on the school funding formula debate for decades he acknowledges the formula was needed to level the playing field for many districts that have been underfunded for years but says the formula by now feels regressive rather than Progressive we're just trying to get to funding this formula that itself is out of date and doesn't necessarily represent the full costs of meeting what's expected of New Jersey schools for New Jersey kids Here and Now Freehold Regional High School Superintendent Charles Sampson agrees it does not align and it's because the system is broken itself it hasn't been re-examined in in 15 years and we've asked repeatedly year over year to stop pause the cuts take a deeper look at how this is impacting certain districts because there are disproportionate impacts occurring in all of this his district is suing the administration so just as the Murphy team approaches the end of its seven-year school funding plan it looks like the issue is once again headed back to the Courts in Montgomery I'm Joanna gagis NJ Spotlight news [Music]