This afternoon at the Statehouse Gov. Phil Murphy unveiled his proposal for a $55.9 billion New Jersey state budget, which raises spending to record levels.

Elementary and secondary education highlights include:

• $11.6 billion in state aid for New Jersey’s public schools, the first time the state funding formula has ever been fully funded. This represents an increase of $908 million over last year.

• $7.1 billion to fully fund the state’s obligations to the public-worker pension system.

School districts will find out their state aid figures over the next week or two. Note that the budget has to be approved by the State Legislature; negotiations typically include no small amount of wheeling and dealing.

2024-25 will be the first yr, at least since the start of the SFRA era in 2008 and perhaps modern-state aid in 1976, where NJ has fully funded its state aid.
It's a true accomplishment by @GovMurphy, the legislature, w/ assist from economy.#njbudget https://t.co/WkFa8Q0NEj

— State Aid Guy (@stateaidguy) February 27, 2024

Here are the education-related sections of Gov. Murphy’s FY2025 budget address:

For that very same reason, I am honored to report that the single largest investment in our budget is dedicated to New Jersey’s best-in-the-nation public education system.

Our budget will increase funding for New Jersey’s public schools by more than $900 million.

And with this funding, our administration is officially delivering on a promise we have made since day one.

We will be the first administration, in our state’s history, to fully fund New Jersey’s school funding formula.

It is worth taking stock of how far we have come in this journey to fully fund our public education system.

During the last administration, our schools were underfunded by $9 billion.

When we entered office, we knew that restoring that funding would not happen overnight.

It would be a marathon, not a sprint. In fact, a seven-year marathon to fully invest in the success of every student, in every school district.

And with our budget, we are going to do exactly that.

This will be the most significant investment into our public schools in history.

And there is a simple reason we are keeping this promise.

It’s because we need to cultivate the potential of every student any way we can — whether they live in Cranbury or Camden….

And importantly, fully funding our public schools will benefit every New Jerseyan — whether or not you have kids in school. Because every additional dollar we spend on public education is a dollar our taxpayers get to save in property taxes.

So we are strengthening our public schools and helping taxpayers save more money at the same time. Those are promises kept.

And, I may add, there is a bigger reason we are able keep these promises to our students, to our taxpayers, and to our families.
It is because we — together — have balanced our books without relying on financial tricks or gimmicks.