Trenton – Senate President Steve Sweeney issued the following statement in response to the decision by the U.S. Department of Education undermining the school funding law put in place to provide full and equitable funding to New Jersey’s schools:

“This is an unfortunate decision that undermines the ability of the state to provide full and equitable funding to every school district in New Jersey. The 2018 school funding reform law corrected longstanding inequities that penalized districts with growing enrollment or increased need like Newark, Paterson and Woodbridge. This decision could put funding for these and other school districts at risk.

“The phase-in of the new school funding formula under S2 started two years before the pandemic and was on track to provide equitable funding to all districts within the next three years. New Jersey more than met the intent of the federal ‘maintenance of equity’ standard by increasing state aid to education by more than $800 million, benefiting both students and taxpayers.”