'Outrageous,' Hillsborough Super Says Of $2.7M Cut In School State Aid

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HILLSBOROUGH, NJ — The Hillsborough Township Public Schools are once again expected to lose state school aid for the 2025 fiscal year as part of the latest state budget proposal.

Hillsborough is projected to lose $2,728,504 compared to last year. In 2024, Hillsborough schools received $20,642,528; next year, the district is slated to receive $17,914,024. This is a 13.22 percent decrease.

“As a Hillsborough taxpayer myself to stick it to Hillsborough taxpayers is unfair,” said Hillsborough Township Superintendent Michael Volpe to Patch.

Find out what's happening in Hillsboroughwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Volpe had initially heard the district was expecting to lose about $250,000 in funding, which he knew seemed off. He went to the Business Office and asked for the district to instead budget for a $400,000 cut.

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“I thought I was already being conservative but to receive a cut that is 10 times bigger than what we were expecting is outrageous, especially without any advanced notification,” said Volpe.

Find out what's happening in Hillsboroughwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Moving forward, Volpe said the roughly $2.7 million in cuts “is going to hurt” the district as the budget is prepared.

“This will be painful and really is running counter to what we have been trying to do with the district,” said Volpe of his Build Boro Back initiative.

Only one other school district in Somerset County lost funding. Franklin Township is also seeing a decrease of 1.80 percent in state funding.

Vowing to fight back, Volpe said he has already reached out to Senator Andrew Zwicker, Assemblyman Roy Freiman, and other people in the state for help. He also spoke with the President of the Hillsborough Education Association Henry Goodhue and the sentiment was the same.

“We all had the same level of outrage. We are not going to take this lying down,” said Volpe. “The state ultimately makes the call on funding amounts but they will hear from us. This is not fair for Hillsborough.”

More than 60 school districts will see funding cuts in double-digit percentages, according to proposed district-by-district funding data published this week. Another 200-plus school districts are poised to see aid increases in the double-digit percentages.

During his annual budget address to legislators Tuesday, Gov. Phil Murphy noted the proposed plan includes the single largest investment in public education in state history. The budget would fully fund the state’s school funding formula for the first time, raising public school funding by $908 million to $11.7 billion. Read More: New NJ School Aid Amounts Released: Who’s Getting More?

See below for a district-by-district breakdown of state school funding for Somerset County for fiscal year 2025:

District FY25 K–12 Aid FY24–FY25 K–12 Aid Difference Aid Percent Difference Bedminster Twp $1,241,261 $72,532 6.21% Bernards Twp $8,263,018 $883,861 11.98% Bound Brook Boro $34,954,413 $4,641,802 15.31% Branchburg Twp $3,741,018 $388,197 11.58% Bridgewater-Raritan Reg $14,712,913 $1,157,965 8.54% Franklin Twp $21,119,162 -$386,982 -1.80% Green Brook Twp $1,942,665 $139,291 7.72% Hillsborough Twp $17,914,024 -$2,728,504 -13.22% Manville Boro $26,893,117 $5,870,885 27.93% Montgomery Twp $8,532,681 $689,029 8.79% North Plainfield Boro $68,322,868 $9,673,796 16.49% Somerset Co Vocational $1,428,562 $0 0.00% Somerset Hills Regional $2,442,478 $143,586 6.25% Somerville Boro $10,043,891 $413,625 4.30% South Bound Brook $6,598,461 $326,436 5.21% Warren Twp $3,144,257 $121,371 4.02% Watchung Boro $1,325,993 $209,291 18.74% Watchung Hills Regional $2,573,281 $133,383 5.47%

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