Gov. Corzine Still Doesn't Get It

Gov. Jon Corzine (D-NJ) knows that the state has to revamp its school funding formula, which is based on the court imposed Abbott formula. 31 cities are provided additional state aid, and the rest of the state is forced to pay for the spending, despite the fact that those 31 cities have not see improvement in their primary goal of educating students.

So, instead of trying to eliminate the Abbott system altogether, he's looking to expand it so that more municipalities get a piece of the pie.

Corzine is looking to spend another $400 million on education funding.

When will state officials draw the line and realize that throwing money at education isn't going to fix anything. The state has thrown billions in to the Abbott districts and those districts are nowhere near where they should be.

The current arrangement, known as the Abbott system, has been widely criticized as shortchanging the other 584 districts in largely suburban and rural areas, some of which serve children just as needy. The new approach would apportion money to schools based on the characteristics of the students, including income, language ability and special academic needs.

The president of the State Senate, Richard J. Codey, who was briefed on the plan this week, said yesterday that the new formula would require an additional $400 million to $500 million in overall state aid in next year’s budget, a figure that was confirmed by members of the Corzine administration. Mr. Codey said that funds would not be reduced for any Abbott districts and that some Abbott districts might even receive slightly more.

The majority of the new money, however, is intended to benefit poor and disadvantaged students in non-Abbott districts, most of which have not received significant state aid increases since 2000. In what now appears to have been a step toward the new formula, Governor Corzine added $66.8 million in this year’s budget for more than 200 non-Abbott districts with large numbers of poor and disadvantaged students.

Since taking office in 2006, Governor Corzine has made school financing a priority in his efforts to reduce property taxes, and he has made no secret of his dislike of the current system, which he has described as having “no rational basis of explanation.” He told local officials this month that “the current method leaves too many children out of luck simply because they live in the wrong ZIP code.”

What this also means is that the state taxpayers will end up shouldering even more in taxes. That additional financing has to come from somewhere - and it certainly isn't growing on trees in Trenton as much as the legislature thinks that it does.