Article

Middle- and working-class districts benefit

Thursday, December 13, 2007 • BY JOHN MOONEY AND DUNSTAN McNICHOL • Star-Ledger Staff

Gov. Jon Corzine yesterday proposed spending an additional $532 million, mostly to struggling middle- and working-class districts, in his new plan to revamp how New Jersey pays for its public schools.

The long-anticipated plan -- titled "A New Formula For Success: All Children, All Communities" -- drew praise, but also raised questions about how the complex formulas will play out in the coming years.

"Some will find fault with some part of this, but we believe if you look at all of our children, we'll be a lot better off," Corzine said at the announcement, held at a Burlington Township elementary school.

Under the proposal:

More than 140 districts would receive 20 percent more in state aid next year, the maximum increase allowed under the plan. The big winners were in communities as wide-ranging as Bridgewater-Raritan, Rahway, North Brunswick and Rockaway, where enrollments or tax burdens -- or both -- ballooned in recent years as state-aid increases slowed to a trickle.

Another 200 districts would see increases of 10 percent or more, including some of the state's wealthiest communities.

No district would see less than a 2 percent increase in the coming year, a clear but expensive nod to the Legislature that in the coming weeks will review and, perhaps, vote on the plan.

Some of the increases will come with strings attached -- requirements the money go directly to property tax relief, state officials said -- although they provided little detail of how that would work.

That and other uncertainties left even some of the biggest apparent winners scratching their heads, cautiously welcoming the news but wondering if increases would evaporate as they put their budgets together.

And those getting smaller gains -- particularly in large urban districts -- criticized the state's new math, with some saying the plan could lead to deep cuts and will surely be contested in court, if not the Legislature.

Clifton schools would stand to gain as much as any district in the state, a 20 percent increase that would translate into another $4.5 million in aid. But business administrator Karen Perkins was not celebrating.

"It's kind of hard to decipher at this point," she said yesterday. "If I can put it in the operating budget, obviously it would help a great deal. If it comes ... with my hands restricted, that's not as good."

In development for more than a year, the proposal would do away with the current court-ordered system under the state Supreme Court's Abbott v. Burke rulings that has steered more than half of the state's nearly $8 billion in school aid to a select group of 31 urban districts.

Instead, it follows the lead of several states that aim money at each district based on their enrollment, with special weight to students coming from low-income or immigrant backgrounds. It then uses a complex formula that sets an amount considered "adequate" for educating them and the community's ability to bear that cost.

"The critical thing here is how the aid is being provided," said state Education Commissioner Lucille Davy. "It's a new formula that distributes on an equitable basis, and respects the districts' situation in terms of enrollment and the needs of the students."

Legislators and lobbyists reacted with a mixture of support and hesitation. An actual bill is not expected to be introduced until next week, providing still more details.

State Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) predicted it would gain at least the backing of the Democratic majority and set the stage in the new year for the next major proposal on Corzine's agenda: a plan to restructure the state's burgeoning debt.

"My sense of it within the caucus is it will clearly get majority support," Codey said. "I think we should move on with it and get on to other important issues like finance restructuring."

The first hearings are planned for today before a joint meeting of the Senate budget and education committees. Corzine has said he hopes to have the plan approved by the end of the current session on Jan. 8.

A group of New Jersey mayors is expected to hold its own State House press conference today, raising questions about how the new measure would be paid for.

"It's a $530 million increase when the state faces a major structural deficit," said Edison Mayor Jun Choi. "Without that fixed, any longer-term school funding formula will not work."

Several Abbott districts were critical of the plan, saying the minimal increases will not help them offset rising costs. Elizabeth will gain an additional 3 percent, but that doesn't take into account the three new schools opening next year, each at a cost of $8 million, officials said.

"We are no different than other Abbotts who are probably numb right now looking at these very sobering figures," said district spokesman Donald Goncalves.

And others said the state's formula for so called "adequacy" will leave countless districts facing potential cuts in aid once the administration removes its clause insuring the minimum 2 percent increase this year.

That "hold-harmless" clause will last three years in all, officials said, and just this year added nearly $800 million to the overall package. Without it, overall state aid would drop $300 million.

"It's not a formula but a one-year ad hoc budget," said David Sciarra, director of the Education Law Center, which first brought the Abbott lawsuits. "For the Abbotts, it would lead to a significant and steady decline. It would take them back to pre-Abbott status of separate and unequal."

$532M school aid plan is unveiled

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