Court
to hear Abbott case
Saturday, April 08, 2006
• BY JOHN MOONEY • Star-Ledger
Staff
With state dollars only growing tighter,
the battle over how to pay for the landmark Abbott vs. Burke
school equity ruling is headed back to the state's highest
court.
Gov. Jon Corzine yesterday said his
administration would seek approval from the state Supreme
Court to freeze overall funding to the 31 Abbott districts,
as he has proposed to do for all school districts under his
$30.9 billion proposed budget.
The move had been expected, as the 31
districts -- including Newark, New Brunswick, Perth Amboy
and Elizabeth -- are protected under the Abbott order that
has brought them hundreds of millions of additional dollars
for extra programs each year.
"New Jersey can no longer afford the
open-ended process of annual supplemental requests that have
led to the extraordinary growth in Abbott district spending,
especially when we lack proof that the supplemental programs
are working," said the application filed yesterday with the
court.
The governor's budget would provide more
than $4 billion to the Abbott districts for K-12 programs,
which is more than a third of all state aid to public
schools. But while most districts statewide have seen little
or no additional aid for the last five years, this is the
first time the Abbott money would be held steady since the
1998 ruling.
In addition, the Corzine administration
has demanded a handful of Abbott districts with relatively
low municipal tax rates to start sharing in some of the
costs.
Advocates and Abbott school officials
were told of the impending court filing this week, and they
criticized Corzine last night for seeking to roll back
Abbott programs that they said were starting to bring gains
in student performance.
Districts had sought 4 percent to 6
percent increases to maintain programs now in place, they
said.
"In this application, the governor is
asking for permission to significantly cut programs and
services for the poorest students in the state," said David
Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center,
which first brought the Abbott suit.
© 2006 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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