"...The budget I put before you today provides the most funding in New Jersey history for education for a fourth year in a row — we are committing more than $12.9 billion. We are providing a record-setting $9 billion in direct aid to schools, nearly $40 million more than the previous year. And we will ensure that every one of our nearly 600 school districts receives an increase, helping districts to implement the new Common Core Standards. In my state of the state address, I proposed that we explore increasing the length of both the school day and the school year to boost our competitiveness. This budget includes $5 million for a new Education Innovation Fund — a competitive "Race to the Top" style program which will call on school districts to put forward proposals for the best way to implement approaches to increase students’ learning time. We can then scale the most effective approaches on a state-wide basis. The budget includes an additional $5 million to support preschool initiatives in New Jersey. This brings total aid to preschool education in the state to $653 million, which supports pre-K education for more than 53,000 students in 143 districts. And importantly, the budget includes funding to continue the path of education reform on which we have set out together. I am proposing increasing funding for the Interdistrict Public School Choice Program by $4.8 million to almost $54 million, and protecting $12 million in charter school funding..."