Some
needy schools face aid cuts
Under Corzine budget, eight
Abbott districts would chip in larger share of education
costs
Thursday, March 23, 2006 • BY JOHN MOONEY •
Star-Ledger Staff
The Corzine administration will notify
several of New Jersey's neediest school districts today that
it plans to cut their state aid for next year and expects
them to raise local school taxes to make up the
difference.
The move represents a sharp shift in
state policy for school districts that receive hundreds of
millions of dollars in extra aid under the state Supreme
Court's Abbott vs. Burke school equity decisions.
The Department of Education has prepared
letters to eight districts -- including Newark, Jersey City,
New Brunswick and Perth Amboy -- informing them that Gov.
Jon Corzine's budget calls for them to chip in a larger
share of their school budgets. Administration officials say
state aid to the eight districts would be reduced by a total
of $23 million.
"We feel these districts should
contribute more of their fair share," said Anthony Coley, a
Corzine spokesman. "It's really a fairness
issue."
The other four districts are Garfield,
Asbury Park, Long Branch and Neptune.
A copy of the letter obtained by The
Star-Ledger says the eight districts were chosen from among
the 31 Abbott districts because their school tax rates are
relatively low. It said the aid cuts would require the
districts to ask their local taxpayers to ante up no more
than an additional $125 per household.
The specific cuts range from $581,000 in
Asbury Park to more than $8.2 million in Newark, officials
said. But they stressed that in Newark's case, the reduction
amounts to about 1 percent of its total state aid. The $23
million from those eight districts would remain in the
state's Abbott funding pool, officials said, but it's
unclear how it would be distributed.
"That's a modest amount," Coley said of
Newark's cut. "We are looking at creative ways of sustaining
Abbott. ... This is not about cutting Abbott."
The move is sure to be contested by at
least some of the districts and their advocates, as was a
similar plan in 2003.
Assistant Education Commissioner Gordon
MacInnes at that time proposed 13 Abbott districts raise $26
million of their own, but the plan was scuttled within days
by then-Gov. James E. McGreevey's office.
Several superintendents reached yesterday
were cautious about the news. All school districts will
receive their proposed state aid figures today.
"Without seeing the numbers, I would
doubt we would buy that," said Richard Kaplan,
superintendent of New Brunswick schools.
Kaplan said he has proposed a budget for
next year that would increase by 4 percent, or about $5.9
million, and he doesn't know how that could be afforded
under the administration's latest plan.
"This seems to fly in the face of the
Abbott decision," he said. "Obviously, New Brunswick is an
Abbott district, and clearly we're an impoverished
city."
But others did not rule it out. Long
Branch superintendent Joseph Ferraina said his local taxes
-- once driving residents out of his city -- have stabilized
in the last several years under Abbott.
"We have to be fair and not get to the
point where we're so greedy we can't work together," he
said. "These are tough times for the state. ... I won't rule
this (out) out of hand."
In presenting his budget plan on Tuesday,
Corzine said state aid to most school districts would be
held flat for the fifth straight year, as his administration
seeks to close the state's massive budget deficit. Yet the
Abbott court rulings have continued to mandate additional
aid for the 31 needy districts, putting Corzine in a tough
political spot.
To comply with the court orders, Corzine
proposed another $140 million for Abbott schools overall,
bringing their total aid to more than $4 billion in a $30.9
billion state budget. Those districts, which serve about a
quarter of the state's students and most of its largest
school systems, would receive more than a third of all state
school aid.
Acting Education Commissioner Lucille
Davy said in the one-page letter to the eight districts that
the proposal is a "starting point for Abbott districts to
contribute their fair share toward education
costs."
The cost-sharing would apply to all
Abbott districts with a total equalized property tax rate
that is less than 110 percent of the state average, the
letter said.
"While all other school districts have
had to raise their local tax levies to address increases in
spending during the past several years, the Abbott districts
have not been required to raise their local levy during that
period, whether or not they were fiscally able to do so,"
Davy wrote. "The governor's recommendation is designed to
begin to address this inequity."
This was not Corzine's only move to
spread some Abbott costs. His budget proposal Tuesday also
would require Abbott preschool parents who earn more than
$60,000 a year to share in some of the costs of after- and
before-school programs.
And Corzine has said that he plans to
soon take a new look at the state's formula for funding all
schools, which has been virtually ignored for the last five
years.
John Mooney covers education. He may be reached at
jmooney@starledger.com, or (973) 392-1548.
© 2006 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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