public school districts continue speaking out about state funding cuts that have wre havoc on their budgets forcing some to take drastic measures either through slashing programs or jobs sometimes both that was among the top issues that came up during an Assembly Budget Committee hearing today in Trenton as education leaders wrestle over how to do more with less senior correspondent Joanna Gaggis reports as part of our under the dome series exploring state government and its impact on the people who live in New Jersey this budget allocates a historic $22.2 billion for education this includes 12.1 billion in direct formula aid to schools which is a nearly $400 million increase over fiscal year 2025 levels new Jersey's Department of Education Commissioner Kevin Damer testified before the Assembly Budget Committee today to outline the state's spending plan for education that's yet another record level allocation this budget demanded even tougher decisions than usual as we work to cement and build on our state's commitment to education in uncertain times those uncertain times are a result of uncertain funding levels from Washington with the Trump administration threatening to withhold up to a billion dollars in K to2 federal aid unless the state commits to not use DEI policies in its schools new Jersey is one of 16 states that refused to sign on to that letter but in the face of uncertainty Damer outlined some of the key items the state is focusing on added new resources for mental health and adjusted school security resources additionally based on one of the most frequently raised concerns from stakeholders we've proposed a shift to calculate special education aid using each district's special education enrollment and moving away from the censusbased method other key initiatives include expanding full day kindergarten to the 10 or so districts that still don't have it as well as expanding preK around the state and high impact tutoring in the districts where students are struggling to meet state standards questions came from both sides about the effectiveness of the school funding formula that as one legislator pointed out was created almost 20 years ago in a completely different economy and for impact before the iPhone even came out 56% of the schools are below adequacy funding that's 100 more than it was when it was initially rolled out is the formula still working we're doing our every three-year updates revising those resources to make sure they align with what's happening in schools we're updating costs we're making keeping it relevant and and timely uh and at the same time I think we've made statutory changes um and obviously this year we're proposing some additional uh changes those changes include a 3% cap on the amount of state aid a district can lose and 6% on what it can gain how were the caps of 3% and 6% determined looking at uh the reductions we we found that 3% is is a reasonable amount uh it's manageable for most districts um and I liken it to uh the the governor asked each of our agency each of the state agencies to uh look for 5% savings within our own operations this budget also allows districts to reach adequacy levels by increasing local taxes beyond the 2% cap and what the state's message turns out to be is three things it's either cut teachers close schools or uh raise taxes and raise taxes in this climate is almost a non-starter i think there are more options than kind of what you laid out in terms of balancing the budget we do want to bring more tools to the fold that's what we've proposed here is to give another uh tool in that toolkit to help districts work through that if they so choose i have so many questions but I don't think there any of us have any of the answers because it's so conditional upon what Washington is going to deal with us are there any meetings being organized between uh leadership of both parties in Washington and and here in Trenton i do think a lot of it is ends up being a complex legal matter and so we have to coordinate our response across all of those uh within the state there is ongoing litigation to restore some proposed federal funding cuts that in the grand scheme are just a drop in the bucket of this proposed $22.2 billion education budget in Trenton i'm Joanna Gagis NJ Spotlight News this program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting a private corporation funded by the American people