11-26-07 Published by  the Courier Post, Asbury Park Press, Daily Record

Courier Post (South Jersey)Funding plan for N.J. schools in the works

Daily Journal (Cumberland County/Vineland, Millville)

Urban school cash in Corzine's cross hairs

Daily Record (Morris) :Corzine working on school funding

Governor believes Abbott system unfair; expected to unveil new plan soon

Asbury Park Press: Schools still N.J.'s biggest tax issue Corzine to propose major overhaul of funding system…Tax Relief may hinge on school funding

TRENTON By TOM HESTER Jr.
Associated Press

With most of New Jersey's sky-high property taxes going to pay for local schools, and most state help to pay those bills going to poor districts, redoing how the state funds public schools is a major unfinished property tax reform piece.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine is expected in the coming weeks to unveil a new public school funding plan that likely will need to pass state Supreme Court scrutiny because it will change how the state funds 31 poor, mostly urban school districts.

While an exact plan hasn't been unveiled, Corzine has essentially detailed what it will propose -- basing state aid for schools not by whether a school is in a poor community, as the state has done for decades, but by the needs of children in each community.

"The essence of the plan is to allocate dollars by children and their needs, not by geography or zip codes," Corzine said.

It won't be cheap.

The state already gives local schools $11 billion per year. That's the single largest expenditure by the state, and means about $1 of every $3 spent by the state goes to schools.

When asked if the new plan would require the state to increase school funding by $500 million to $1 billion, Corzine said it'll be "something in that range."

"Probably closer to the low end," said the Democratic governor, who will try to do that while also battling a projected $3 billion budget deficit for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Why such focus on school funding?

New Jersey has the nation's highest property taxes, at $6,330 per homeowner. That's twice the national average. About 55 percent of those property taxes go to schools.

But the state Supreme Court has demanded financial parity between the state's poorest and wealthiest schools. The decision was known as the Abbott ruling, so the poorest schools are often called Abbott districts.

Thus, 31 school districts, most in large cities, receive heavy state funding. They represent about 25 percent of state school children, but get about half of the $11 billion in state aid to schools.

Meanwhile, the state didn't increase aid to most other schools between 2000 and last year.

That left the nearly 600 other districts with property taxes as the only means to fund annual spending increases for teacher salaries, debt on new school buildings and other costs, and property taxes increased about 7 percent per year during that time.

"The current method leaves too many children out of luck simply because they live in the wrong zip code," Corzine said. "And the failure to provide sufficient state school aid has put a disproportionate property tax burden on the backs of far too many homeowners."

He deemed the current formula "a court-driven, ad hoc system" that has "no rational basis of explanation."

"We have districts that are loaded with economically at-risk children, high concentrations of special needs kids, that don't necessarily get the same kind of support that they would get if they were in an Abbott district," Corzine said.

The governor said he foresees phasing out the Abbott districts, but that will require Supreme Court approval.

"We need a funding formula that is constitutionally appropriate and actually serves the needs of the kids," Corzine said.

Corzine wants the new formula approved in time for the next state budget, which should be introduced in February.

Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts, D-Camden, and Senate President Richard J. Codey, D-Essex, said the Legislature may vote on whether to approve a new formula before the Legislature elected in the Nov. 6 election convenes on Jan. 8.
Published: November 26. 2007 3:10AM