"...She (Commissioner Davy) said the department plans to issue guidelines shortly to further clarify the use of the targeted funds..."

Officials trip over strings on school aid State targets the funds at new programs only Thursday, March 01, 2007 BY DUNSTAN McNICHOL AND JOHN MOONEY Star-Ledger Staff New Jersey communities that began the week celebrating hefty boosts in state school aid are beginning to worry that the increases are far less substantial than they first thought. They believe state-imposed restrictions on how the money can be used mean the new funding will be of little help in holding down property taxes. In West Orange, which is getting $854,000 in additional state aid to serve 1,700 low-income students, superintendent Jerry Tarnoff said he was surprised to learn that the money can only be used for new or enhanced programs. "How does the new program help you when the program you already have for these kids is straining?" he said. "We certainly don't want to lose what we have in place, while someone tells us we have to do something new. ... It's almost an oxymoron." In Montclair, superintendent Frank Alvarez said the strings on about half the new state aid his town will receive could complicate the district's efforts to win community support for the upcoming school budget. "We are grateful for the money, but it certainly is not the 6 percent raise for Montclair that was advertised to the world," Alvarez said. "It is deceiving to the public. Our challenge will be trying to explain this to our local constituencies in order to gain their support during this budget process." In Washington Township, a suburban district outside Trenton, reaction to the proposed new state aid was even less enthusiastic. Officials there responded to a $67,500 boost in aid by filing a lawsuit in federal court yesterday alleging that the state's continued refusal to fund the school aid formula since 2002 has cost the township $12 million. Washington Township officials say the state's underfunding amounts to a violation of the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. "The 3 percent we got -- that will barely cover the cost of one teacher," said Washington Township school superintendent John J. Szabo. "It really isn't what we need to carry on." The budget proposal that Gov. Jon Corzine unveiled last week included $300 million in additional aid for the majority of the state's school districts that had not seen an across-the-board boost in state support for at least five years. But $66 million of that is in the form of Targeted At-Risk Aid, delivered to districts with a high concentration of low-income students. "This aid is special revenue and must be used for expanding pre-school or full-day kindergarten opportunities, or enhancing literacy programs in grades kindergarten through 8," a letter from the state to school superintendents says. "Districts receiving TARA should not include the funds in the budget submitted prior to the school election." Local officials say those provisions mean the targeted aid will not help offset local taxes. "It is not tax relief, and that is what people might see in this," said Robert Gratz, superintendent in Hackettstown, where aid increased 5.5 percent. "People are seeing we got 5.5 percent more, when we actually didn't." State Education Commissioner Lucille Davy said the targeted aid is still tax relief, even if it is spent on programs that communities do not currently offer. "If you have 35 percent poor children who are not doing well and what they need is a reading coach, we'll give you the money for that," she said. "You don't have to go back to the taxpayers to meet the needs of those kids. That is a taxpayer saving, without question." Davy also said communities that already offer a full complement of services to their low-income children will be able to use the new state aid to offset existing costs. "In cases like that, tax relief for them would be appropriate," she said. "But I think that wouldn't be the rule." She said the department plans to issue guidelines shortly to further clarify the use of the targeted funds.