Stakeholders urge permanent SFRA fixes, additional school funding and higher nonpublic school nurse pay at budget hearing

Harrison Silver, a legislative advocate for the New Jersey School Boards Association, told the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee the governor’s FY2026 proposal makes some welcome, short‑term adjustments to how state education aid is distributed but urged making those changes permanent. “This budget reduces volatility by capping year‑over‑year district‑level reductions at 3%,” Silver said, and it shifts special education funding toward actual enrollment and uses multiyear averages of income and property wealth to calculate local fair share.

Several witnesses said those short‑term fixes do not solve longer term gaps. Sharon Kringle of the Education Law Center said the new Educational Adequacy Report updates base costs to reflect student mental health and special education but that extraordinary special education aid remains flat and last year reimbursed only about 62% of…