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Educators outline how Title grants, tutoring and school meals depend on federal dollars
Summary
Superintendents and business administrators described Title I–IV funds, high-impact tutoring grants, universal free meals and summer EBT as essential supports in many districts and said cuts would force staff and program reductions.
School leaders from Trenton, Pascack Valley, Manville and Egg Harbor Township described how Title I, II, III and IV funds, together with competitive grants such as high‑impact tutoring awards and federal school-meal reimbursements, support day-to-day student services.
Hope Grant, assistant superintendent for Trenton Public Schools, told legislators that federal money funds early-intervention services, multilingual education, trauma‑informed care, parent engagement and universal free meals. Grant said many Trenton families live in a “book desert” and rely on school programs — from weighted blankets and social‑emotional learning to high‑impact tutoring — to support early learning and attendance.
Other district examples included: - Pascack Valley Regional (Barry Bockenheimer): Federal funding makes up roughly 1% of the district budget (about $640,000). Bockenheimer noted Title IV money helps fund student and staff CPR and bleeding-control certification programs the district runs for safety. - Manville (Kelly Eppley): Title funds equal about 1% of Manville’s budget; the district spends roughly 70% of Title I funds on before‑ and after‑school tutoring and summer school, and reported that 85% of tutored students achieved accelerated benchmark growth. Manville uses Title 2 for professional development (about $40,000 reported for the year) and Title 3 for multilingual/immigrant supports; it pays about $20,000 (roughly 10% of a Title 1 allocation) for dual‑enrollment college credits for eligible students. - Egg Harbor Township (Daniel Smith): Egg Harbor cited $2,100,000 in Title I funding, $2,000,000 in IDEA funding and $65,000 in Perkins funds. Smith said losing 30% of Title I there would be roughly $629,000 — about seven teacher positions; losing all Title I ($2.1 million) could cost about 23 staff and eliminate tier‑2/3 MTSS services and parent‑engagement programs.
On school meals and summer EBT: Matthew Clark of the New Jersey Association of School Business Officials told the committee that statewide daily lunch participation is about 700,000 meals and breakfast participation about half that size; the 2024 Summer EBT program served about 711,000 children, providing $40 per child per month over three months and delivering roughly $85 million to families in need.
Lawmakers asked witnesses to provide program-level performance data (for example, pre/post tutoring results and high-impact tutoring evaluations) and a district-by-district funding breakdown (percentage of budget from federal, state and local sources) so the Legislature can better estimate exposure and consider contingency options.
Speakers did not propose specific new state funding sources; instead they urged that the Legislature obtain comprehensive data to inform budget choices.
