Changes in PreK Funding for 2018-19

This post looks at changes in PreK funding between 2018 and 2019.

Governor Phil Murphy has a strong commitment to PreK and is increasing direct funding from $680.5 million to $738.1 million, a $57.6 million increase, with several tens of millions more in indirect funding for TPAF payments and teachers Social Security, plus eventual post-retirement healthcare.

Even if one only considers the $738.1 million in direct costs, PreK costs are equal to 8% of NJ's PreK-12 direct aid, or 2% of New Jersey's overall budget.  This is a slight increase from FY2009, when PreK was only 6.4% of PreK-12 direct aid, or 1.6% of the overall budget.

Of that $57.6 million increase, most ($32.6 million) goes as inflation adjustment and enrollment growth for existing programs or to make up for the loss of federal money (see pg 16).  Only $25 million is planned for new PreK spaces in new districts.  That new $25 million has not yet been assigned to districts.

The $57.6 million increase is almost equal to the PreK increase in the entirely of Christie's term, who increased PreK from $596.1 million in FY2010 to $655.5 million in FY2018.

Unlike in K-12 funding, where Murphy did not allow any district to lose state aid, Murphy is allowing aid losses for PreK, and 35 districts actually are losing PreK money due to declining enrollment. Bridgeton's loss will be the largest, $1.3 million. New Brunswick's loss will be $575,051.  This PreK aid dynamism is a carryover from Christie , who also allowed some reductions for PreK.

See this page for easy comparisons of 2017-18 PreK and 2018-19 PreK.

Newark's $96,335,148 in PreK funding is 14% of the state total. Jersey City is next, at $67,611,454, then Paterson at $48,588,485.

 It is noteworthy that Jersey City's PreK aid is 39% larger than Paterson's, since Jersey City's K-12 student population, 30,815, is only 7% higher than Paterson's 28,716.

This large gap between Jersey City's PreK funding and Paterson's is a reminder of how Jersey City's demographics skew towards young children.   It goes without saying that most of the children benefiting from state-funded PreK in Jersey City are not low-income and migrate into private schools or suburban district once they are past PreK or kindergarten.  

The non-Abbott district getting the most PreK money is Little Egg Harbor, which is slated for $3.9 million.  Red Bank Boro is in second place among non-Abbotts, getting $3.6 million.

Although there is a diminishment of the Abbott monopoly of PreK in New Jersey, there is only one Abbott, Burlington City, that gets less PreK aid than Little Egg Harbor and Red Bank Boro.  The next lowest-funded Abbott, Phillipsburg, gets $4.5 million, which is more than any non-Abbott.

450 NJ school districts do not receive anything for PreK, although not all of those students enroll elementary schoolers where offering PreK would even be appropriate.  Nonetheless, there are many district with large FRL-eligible populations who receive nothing for PreK, like Bloomfield, Belleville, Clifton, Egg Harbor Township, West Orange, Edison, Woodbridge, Sayreville.

Since NJ's unmet needs in PreK are so large, one could celebrate PreK this expansion to new districts, but one can also look at how unfair the existing distribution is and how New Jersey funds PreK for 3's in the Abbotts when it offers nothing to 4's in non-Abbotts.  One can also see the distribution as unfair because the large number of privileged children in Hoboken and Jersey City who get "free" PreK.

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See Also:

• "Big Winners, Losers in PreK Aid"
• "The Abbott PreK Monopoly Continues"
• "What PreK Our Way Doesn't Say"