Sometimes the news just walks past you.
On Wednesday, Mike and Farnoosh were on the campus of Montclair State University to talk to a class about the story of The Montclair Pod. As it turned out, Gov. Mikie Sherrill was on campus too, sitting for a long interview with NJ PBS.
The timing was almost too good. Just a day earlier, they’d learned that the Pod’s November 2025 interview with then-Gov.-elect Sherrill, “We Deserve Answers”, is a finalist for a 2026 Signal Award for Best Local News Episode. So they did what any self-respecting local news team would do: they asked the professor exactly what time they were needed in class, then staked out the exits.
“Stakeout” may be generous. Mike and Farnoosh split up to cover two doors, chatted up the state troopers about which way she’d be leaving, and Farnoosh nearly fell into a bush trying to keep up. At one point, a trooper asked Mike if he was with the governor’s team. Mike told him the truth: he was with The Montclair Pod. The trooper’s follow-up: “What is The Montclair Pod?”
When they finally got to the governor, Farnoosh delivered the good news. “You, me and Mike have been nominated for a Signal Award,” she told her. “Thank you for making our podcast shine.”
“That’s amazing,” Sherrill said. “Well, thank you guys for everything you’re doing.”
A database, and a prototype
Farnoosh promised not to ask about schools. Then she immediately asked about schools. (What she meant, she explained later on the show, was that she wouldn’t ask about state monitors. Regular listeners will get the joke.)
Specifically, the hosts wanted to know whether the governor has been thinking about New Jersey’s school funding formula now that kids are back in class.
“The school funding formula is always on my mind,” Sherrill said. “We have a fantastic education commissioner, and one of the first charges I gave her was really to rethink the school funding formula, because it impacts so much.”
That commissioner is Lily Laux. According to the governor, Laux found early on that the state didn’t have the information it needed to do the job. “When she came to really determine how to best do that, there was a real lack of metrics and information,” Sherrill said.
Her answer: a new statewide database. Sherrill said she has already seen a prototype.
“Every town can look at where the money is being spent, and it’s different by each town,” she said. That includes “how much is being spent on students, administrative fees, extracurriculars, etc.”
The idea, she said, is to compare districts fairly. “Some schools are better resourced, some schools have more English as a second language, which costs more money to educate students there,” Sherrill said. The state would group similar schools together and look for the outliers: “Which schools in this grouping are performing above where we would expect them to be, and why, and how can we take that and really give those resources to all the schools across the state.”
And with that, she was off. “Great, guys. Thanks again.”
Why the question matters
This wasn’t a random question. It came straight out of last week’s Supper with the Super, where Superintendent Ruth Turner said Montclair’s budget strain is built into the system. “I don’t need to tell you about the cost-of-living increase our staff gets, minimum three percent, while the tax levy cap is two percent,” Turner told Mike and Farnoosh. “You can do the math.”
The district has made progress since its roughly $20 million deficit, closing a nearly $9 million gap to balance this year’s budget. But Turner argued that cuts alone can’t keep up when costs outrun the state’s 2% cap on property tax levy increases. “It doesn’t matter who’s sitting in my chair,” she said. “If they’re doing the job right, there are going to be cuts and taxes are going to have to be raised one way or another, because the system is structured that way.”
The governor’s answer didn’t get to the 2% cap. With more time, and somewhere other than a hallway, Mike and Farnoosh would have pushed on it.
What she did make clear is who’s in charge of the fix, and that work is underway. In April, Laux told the Assembly Budget Committee that the formula, enacted in 2008, has become outdated and should be more predictable and transparent. In August, the state Department of Education launched a statewide school funding outreach effort, including a steering committee led by Laux that is set to convene this fall. Any real change to the formula would require action by the Legislature.
Turner said superintendents are already feeling a difference. They now get a monthly audience with the commissioner, she said, “which didn’t happen last year with the previous administration.”
The Montclair Pod will be watching that steering committee closely and following up with the governor, who, for the record, still owes Mike and Farnoosh a tour of Drumthwacket.
Watch her NJ PBS interview tonight
The governor’s sit-down with NJ PBS will air as part of the debut of NJ PBS News with Rob Nelson, the station’s new nightly newscast. It premieres tonight, Thursday, Oct. 1, at 5:30 p.m.
It’s a big moment for public media in New Jersey, and it’s happening right up the road. Montclair State took over operation of NJ PBS on July 1, replacing New York’s WNET, which had run the network since 2011. The station is based in MSU’s College of Communication and Media. Under its agreement with the state, the university committed to at least six hours a week of New Jersey-focused programming, including a weeknight newscast.
One more thing: please vote
The Montclair Pod is a 2026 Signal Awards finalist in two categories, and once again it’s up against some heavy hitters, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and San Francisco’s KQED.
Vote for us for Best Local News Podcast, which the Pod won last year, and Best Local News Episode, for “We Deserve Answers,” by Oct. 15. Be sure to confirm your vote in Signal’s email.
As Mike and Farnoosh said on this week’s show, this nomination belongs to the whole town, or, in Farnoosh’s words: “It’s not us, it’s you.”
More from The Montclair Pod
- “We Deserve Answers”: Governor-Elect Mikie Sherrill on Montclair Schools’ Fiscal Crisis
- A Different September: Montclair Schools’ Superintendent Ruth Turner Talks Phones, Dress Codes, Budgets & More
- Montclair Schools Approve $158.9M Budget: Cuts, Additions, a Major Building Shift and What It Means for Your Tax Bill
- Supper with the Super: Ruth Turner on the Budget, the Audit & Why She Feels Burden — Not Power
- The $20M Deficit: Heist or Overspending? (The Making of The Montclair Girl, Book Buzz & a Church Street Mystery)
