State education leaders were in the hot seat on Wednesday, testifying before Assembly budget committee about the Murphy administration’s funding and other proposals for New Jersey’s public schools.
Lawmakers are reviewing a budget that increases state aid to schools by nearly $1 billion, but also cuts funding to more than a 100 districts. Several legislators are proposing various proposals to address those imbalances, but none have yet offered a permanent fix.
“My district, Hawthorne, is losing $880,000, which is roughly 18%,” said state Assemblyman Al Barlas (R-Bergen) said. ” I got from their school board, that they’re down 20 kids from last year. So I was just trying to understand how we got here, to this point that they’re staring down the barrel of an 18% reduction.”
