Signed into law, school aid plan faces test Supreme Court will decide if new funding formula passes constitutional muster Monday, January 14, 2008 • BY DUNSTAN McNICHOL • Star-Ledger Staff Gov. Jon Corzine signed his $7.8 billion school funding plan into law yesterday, capping a whirlwind drive that saw the complicated proposal enacted barely a month after it was first unveiled. Today the plan moves to the state Supreme Court, where justices are scheduled to consider whether it meets the constitutional requirement that it guarantee enough state support for every child to receive a "thorough and efficient" public school education. "We have great confidence that we have laid down a fair and equitable aid formula for all our schools and all our children across the state," Corzine said. Yesterday, during a 30-minute signing ceremony at Drumthwacket, the governor's mansion in Princeton, neither Corzine nor the lawmakers who approved the plan last week expressed any doubt about the formula's fairness. "This formula will go a long way to ensuring that children, wherever they may live, will get the education they deserve to expect," said Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex), sponsor of the measure in the Senate. Corzine's plan, which boosts school aid by $532 million, is the first attempt in a decade to rewrite the ground rules that determine how New Jersey distributes almost $8 billion in school aid each year. Three previous formulas have been determined unconstitutional, largely because the state Supreme Court determined the state aid plan relied too heavily on property taxes to finance schools in poor communities whose residents were incapable of raising the money required. The latest set of rulings, in a case labeled Abbott vs. Burke, resulted in a series of court orders that have forced the state to steer billions of dollars in special aid to 31 needy communities, in an effort to ensure those communities have as much to spend on their students as the state's wealthiest communities. As a result of the court orders, the state's current budget includes $4.4 billion for the so-called Abbott districts covered by the court order, while providing only $3.3 billion for the balance of the state's 618 school districts. Corzine's formula attempts to resolve the Abbott question by establishing an amount needed to cover the expenses of providing students in various circumstances an "adequate" education, regardless of whether they live in a poor or wealthy community. "This is really a watershed moment for education in New Jersey," said Assemblyman Herb Conaway (D-Gloucester), co-chairman of a special legislative committee that studied school funding as an element of property tax relief during a special session in 2006. "We are setting a new course." Under Corzine's formula, the pattern of regular, generous increases to all the districts covered by the Abbott rulings will come to an end, projections show. After across-the-board increases in aid this year, the new formula will hold state aid flat for 20 of the 31 Abbott communities, projections by the state Department of Education show. Critics say that will effectively cost the Abbott communities tens of millions of dollars, forcing them to scale back reforms funded by the court-ordered aid. That prospect was one reason lawmakers from urban districts, including all six African-American state senators, voted against the new formula. The measure squeaked through the Assembly with the minimum 41 votes needed. In the Senate, the measure hung in doubt with only 20 votes for three hours, while lobbyists and lawmakers grappled to win the 21st vote needed for passage. Eventually, after Corzine agreed to add $20 million in extra funding for students with autism and other special needs, the measure was adopted with 23 votes. Today, Corzine said, state Attorney General Anne Milgram is scheduled to send a letter to the Supreme Court informing them the new formula has been adopted and asking them how they would like to go about reviewing it. "They are requesting a formulization from them about how the Supreme Court wants to handle that," Corzine said. "It's more of a notification letter." Dunstan McNichol may be reached at dmcnichol@starledger.com or (609) 989-0341. © 2008 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with permission.