Schools
The state Department of Education released aid figures for the 2025-26 school year. Here's a look at the impact for Howell.
HOWELL, NJ — For most of the last seven years, the Howell Township Schools have grappled with reductions to the state funding provided to the school district.
The cuts, mandated under a state law that purported to balance out imbalances in funding from the School Funding Reform Act of 2008, have had multiple impacts for many districts and the students they serve, including reductions in teaching staff and increased classroom sizes.
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While the Howell Schools, a kindergarten-through-eighth grade district, saw an increase in funding in the 2024-25 school year, the cuts are back for 2025-26. The total aid package from the state under Gov. Phil Murphy's proposed budget is $21,455,291, a decrease of $663,566 from the 2024-25 funding, according to figures released by the state Department of Education on Thursday.
The reduction comes as Howell Township Schools are slated for a significant increase in funding for one of the most challenging categories for districts: special education aid. The district is to receive $7,474,060 in assistance for its special education students, a 42 percent increase over the $5,257,622 received last year.
The change is the result of a move from funding special education based on an estimate of the number of special education students in an area to funding the actual number of students being served.
Howell also is set to receive $3,419,152 for transportation aid, an eye-popping 278 percent increase over the $903,761 it received in that category in 2024-25.
Those increases, however, were offset by a nearly 40 percent decrease in equalization aid; Howell is to receive $9,276,379 for 2025-26, down from $15,439,995.
In the Freehold Regional High School District, where Howell students attend for ninth through 12 grades, funding from the state is decreasing again after the district funding was flat in 2024-25. It is slated for $29,633,713 in 2025-26, down $916,507 from the $30,550,220 Freehold Regional received last year.
For 2025-26, Freehold Regional's special education funding is $17,475,130, more than double the $7,030,185 from 2024-25, and transportation aid is $9,632,700, five times the $1,816,395 from last year. But the state completely eliminated $20,968,046 in equalization aid that the district received in 2024-25, resulting in the cut.