Quality Public Education for All New Jersey Students

 

Property Taxes, School Funding issues
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3-25-09 Judge Doyne makes recommendation to Supreme Court on Abbott v School Funding Reform Act
'Abbott Update' THE RECORD, By KATHLEEN CARROLL "...Justices asked Doyne to review the new school funding formula, hear testimony and make a formal recommendation. After three weeks of hearings, he concluded that a new method of distributing state aid among New Jersey’s 600-plus school districts secures “the thorough and efficient education so desperately needed for the development of our youth.”

The new school funding formula “represents a thoughtful, progressive attempt to assist at-risk children throughout the State of New Jersey, and not only those who by happenstance reside in Abbott districts,” he wrote..."

 
By KATHLEEN CARROLL
STAFF WRITER
A Superior Court judge reviewing the school funding law says the state should end the Abbott program, which has brought billions of dollars to poor communities to help students reach the same education levels as their wealthy neighbors.

However, districts helped by the Abbott program should still receive some extra state funds, at least for the next three years, to ensure students in those communities aren’t harmed, Judge Peter E. Doyne of Superior Court in Hackensack said in a 315-page opinion published today.

Now the matter is back before the Supreme Court.

Justices asked Doyne to review the new school funding formula, hear testimony and make a formal recommendation. After three weeks of hearings, he concluded that a new method of distributing state aid among New Jersey’s 600-plus school districts secures “the thorough and efficient education so desperately needed for the development of our youth.”

The new school funding formula “represents a thoughtful, progressive attempt to assist at-risk children throughout the State of New Jersey, and not only those who by happenstance reside in Abbott districts,” he wrote.

The Abbott program was mandated by the court in the absence of a school funding formula that fairly distributed state aid to school districts. It stems from a 40-year-old court case on behalf of children in poor towns, in which advocates claimed they were denied their constitutional right to a “thorough and efficient” education because low property tax collections in those towns meant less money for public education.

It brings extra state tax dollars and oversight into 31 communities in New Jersey, including Paterson, Passaic and Garfield. The state covers as much as 90 percent of school costs in those towns and provides extra programs like preschool and full-day kindergarten.

State officials had argued that the court-mandated Abbott reforms should end because a new school funding formula, signed by Gov. Corzine last year, fairly divides state aid among all school districts.
The new formula awards aid based on enrollment, and then adds extra money per student for every student who is poor, has limited proficiency in English or receives special-education services.
 
 State officials have said it is superior to the Abbott program because 49 percent of low-income students in New Jersey live outside Abbott communities.
Advocates for Abbott districts argued in court that those schools would be hurt if they lost their special legal status. The challenge of educating children in schools in very poor neighborhoods requires special help, they said.
E-mail: carroll@northjersey.com