Gov. Phil Murphy delivered his fiscal year 2026 budget address from the State House on Feb. 25, touting record-high funding for K-12 schools.

The proposed budget provides the single-largest investment into New Jersey’s public education system in the state’s history, including $1.3 billion for pre-K and $12.1 billion for K-12 schools, which is a more than $3.9 billion increase since fiscal year 2018.

The governor noted that the proposed budget seeks to reduce volatility in the school funding process by ensuring that no school sees a steep reduction in state aid from one year to the next.

That remark reiterated an advisory from the  New Jersey Department of Education highlighted in last week’s School Board Notes that stated the department intends to limit the amount by which districts’ state school aid may decrease next year. The advisory said in part:

“Specifically, school districts can anticipate that total K-12 State aid will not decrease by an amount greater than 3% of their K-12 State aid for the 2024-2025 school year. This limit will apply to the four primary aid categories – equalization, special education, security, and transportation aid as calculated under the ‘School Funding Reform Act of 2008.’”

Investing in education is critical for working parents as “every additional dollar the state spends on public education is a dollar our families get to save in property taxes,” Murphy said.

Focusing on Early Learners and Cell Phones: The governor also touted the creation of almost 20,000 new classroom seats for the state’s youngest learners during his time as governor.

His proposed budget will help parents with young children save even more money by providing “new funding” to make free, full-day pre-K a reality throughout the state, he said. The budget proposes $1.27 billion for preschool expansion aid.

“This is our North Star,” he said. “Because every child should be positioned for academic success, especially at the earliest stages of life.”

He also zeroed in on the need to support “a new priority,” which is working with districts across New Jersey to ban cell phones from our K-12 schools.”

The state will provide $3 million in incentive grants to a group of school districts that want to become phone-free schools, “so our students can remain focused on their studies, and our educators don’t have to compete with TikTok for their attention,” he said.

According to the governor, “Getting cell phones out of schools helps educators, it helps parents, and most of all, it helps our kids.”

He singled out Woodbury City Junior Senior High School in Gloucester County, whose superintendent, Andrew Bell, was in the audience.

Noting that Bell is one of those leading the charge for phone-free schools, the governor said the benefits of enacting such a policy at the school have been “swift and significant.”

The Trump Administration: The governor also directed some comments at the Trump administration, which could pertain to schools.

While he said he has every intention of working “in good faith” with the Trump administration to better the lives of the people the state serves, he added, “But, just as importantly, if this administration tries to attack our most vulnerable neighbors, I will never back down from defending their rights and freedoms.”

He continued, “I will never back down from defending the members of our LGBTQ+ community – because their identities are not up for debate. I will never back down from defending civil rights – or the rights of educators to teach the full truth of our history. I will never back down from defending our immigrant families.”

Voting Age: The governor once again endorsed the idea of allowing 16- and 17-year-olds the opportunity to vote in local school board elections – as they are already doing in Newark.

“Over the next year, we are going to work alongside Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State Tahesha Way to continue protecting and expanding voting rights, with a particular focus on youth voting rights.”

Noting that young Americans are the future of our country, he said that in a world as complicated as ours, “they deserve the right to help shape that future.”

Budget in Brief: Some additional highlights from the Budget in Brief include:

  • Using three-year averages for property wealth and income measures to bring greater stability to the school funding 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 include mental health and up-to-date school security resources; calculating special education aid using actual special education enrollment; and providing a mechanism for additional tax levy growth cap flexibility for some districts.

We will continue to report on details that relate to education spending in the proposed budget as they become available. View the “Budget in Brief.”