The Jersey City school district is suing the state over proposed cuts in education funding that district officials say will lead to program cuts and hundreds of layoffs.

Planned cuts in state aid for 2019-20 amount to more than $27 million; over the next five years, city schools stand to lose another $208 million, officials said.

"We're looking at laying off 415 schoolteachers if these cuts are allowed to stand," said Sudhan Thomas, president of the Jersey City Board of Education. "We have 2,400 teachers, so that's close to 20 percent of our population. It would lead to further overcrowding of our classrooms, which are already crowded because of underfunding over years."

The lawsuit was filed Monday in Superior Court in Hudson County on behalf of the Jersey City Board of Education and an unidentified student at School 29 and his guardian, Shanna Givens.

Since 2018, Trenton lawmakers have redirected money from districts considered "overfunded" by the state to needier, faster-growing school districts.

As a result, about 30 percent of New Jersey public schools considered "overfunded" will see cuts in aid under the proposed budget plan. About 70 percent of school districts will get a boost in school aid.

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Jersey City, which has 29,000 students in public schools, has alleged that the cuts are unconstitutional and that New Jersey is failing to meet its obligations under the law.

"If the recent amendments to the School Funding Reform are permitted to be implemented ... the calamity that would ensue would be insurmountable," the district alleged in the lawsuit.

In the lawsuit, officials also allege that the proposed cuts come after a decade of state underfunding left Jersey City with a $700 million shortfall.

Several other school districts that are losing money due to school funding changes have also sued the state. They include Toms River, which faces a cumulative $80 million in state aid funding cuts over the next six years, and Brick Township, which faces a $23 million loss.

Mike Yaple, a Department of Education spokesman, said the department does not comment on pending litigation.

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