The township school board lamented the loss of funding in the state’s most recent budget during a July 14 meeting.
“Unfortunately, despite all of our advocacy efforts, we did not receive any additional funding from the state in this year’s budget,” board president Gina Winters complained at the board session, “meaning that our budget allocation stands as what was noted in February and March that it would be.”
Winters said she spoke before the New Jersey Assembly Budget Committee in March about the impact of less state aid.
“Ultimately, it is the state’s responsibility, under the New Jersey Constitution, to provide a thorough and efficient education for our students,” she noted. “The administration has abdicated its responsibility, hiding behind a formula that no longer works.
“The legislature must step up.”
After New Jersey Department of Education Commissioner Dr. Lily Laux visited the district in May, Superintendent Kwame Morton reported to the community that he and Laux talked about the impact of less state funding.
“Most importantly, it was made abundantly clear that the financial support of the New Jersey Department of Education is essential in providing our students with the quality education that they deserve,” Morton recalled.
Winters said at the meeting that while more state funding was advocated, there is no increase forthcoming.
“This is a huge disappointment for me, to be frank,” she acknowledged. “I felt that the district – as well as the community – did a really great job advocating for Cherry Hill public schools and all the needs that exist, and I’m extremely disappointed that we did not see an additional allocation to support our students.”
Winters did promise that the board will continue to advocate for changes in the funding formula.
“The fight does not end here,” she added. “I expect to move forward with advocacy toward revising the funding formula itself. That way, Cherry Hill can be sure to get its fair share, and we can sustain the great programming education that we are all – all – in support of.”
The district inquired about more state aid before the school budget passed at the end of June, when Gov. Mikie Sherrill addressed the issue.
“What I was asked to do as I was running (for office) was to really modernize and stabilize the school funding formula,” she explained. “And so, in the month and a half, we’ve put a floor and a ceiling on it, because we were seeing wild shifts as the budget came out.
“So here we are in late June,” she added. “You can imagine as a school district, waiting for that budget to come out, and then being surprised … We’re going to continue to move to make sure that we have the best public school system in the nation.”
This year’s school budget includes $12.4 billion in state funding for districts across New Jersey, an increase of more than $370 million from last year. But as part of 2027 state aid, Sherill instituted the floor and ceiling caps, meaning districts got a 3% reduction or 6% increase in aid.
Cherry Hill saw a 3% reduction this year, a loss of $857,788. It was among about 100 school districts that saw the same decrease. A majority of them – about 400 – received at least some additional state aid, with more than 200 school systems getting the maximum 6% increase.
