Newark, NJ – April 5, 2007

Data from the NJ Department of Education show the basic cost to educate students in wealthier, successful suburban school districts will rise to $13,092 per pupil in the coming school year, up from $12,174 per pupil in 2006-07. This represents an increase of $918 per pupil, or 7.5%, over the 2006 base spending level.

Students in urban districts - mostly poor, Black and Latino - receive the same funding for their base education program as students in the wealthier suburban districts. Known as "parity," the requirement for equal resources is a linchpin of the NJ Supreme Court's landmark Abbott v. Burke education equity rulings, intended to give disadvantaged students in urban areas educational opportunities comparable to their suburban peers.

Abbott is considered to be one of the nation's most important education rulings for poor students and students of color since Brown v. Board of Education.

The base cost is the amount spent to provide all students with the core subjects defined in the NJ Core Curriculum Standards, along with co- and extra-curricular activities, building maintenance and other supports. Also known as "foundational" or "regular" education, it does not include the cost of extra services for students with disabilities and low-income students, nor transportation costs.

The $13,092 per pupil spent in suburban schools is far above the base cost in the "Report on the Cost of Education" released by NJDOE in December 2006. In the Report, NJDOE determined only $8,705 per pupil is necessary to educate students in New Jersey's K-12 school districts, and only $9,513 per pupil in K-8 districts. This base cost is approximately 25% below the level spent in wealthier suburban districts. Education Commissioner Lucille Davy has proposed using the lower NJDOE base cost in a new statewide school funding formula.

The 128 wealthier suburban districts are in District Factor Groups (DFG) I and J, the State's most educationally successful public schools. The NJDOE ranks districts in groups from A to J based on income, property wealth, socioeconomic and educational factors. Districts in the A and B groups are the poorest and most educationally challenged, while those in I and J groups are the wealthiest and most successful.

The following table presents the basic student characteristics of the wealthier and poorest districts:

"Our suburban districts continue to raise funds to maintain their status as New Jersey's most successful," said David Sciarra, ELC Executive Director. "These districts set the standard of educational quality and outcomes for the rest of the state, especially for districts serving high numbers of poor students and students of color."

Mr. Sciarra noted that a major criticism of the NJDOE cost study was its failure to examine spending in the suburban schools, even though the 1997 Abbott IV ruling requires the State to do so as a part of developing any new funding formula. In its study, the NJDOE never explained why its base cost was so far below the level in the wealthier suburban districts, nor provided any evidence of "excess" in those districts.

"The boost in suburban school spending is more proof that the NJDOE education cost study is seriously flawed, outdated and inadequate. If the low NJDOE base cost were used in a new school funding formula, it would put the Garden State on a glide path back to inequity," said Mr. Sciarra.

"This data also shows why we need the additional study proposed in Assembly Bill 4060 (Stanley/Stack), including analysis of the suburban spending level, to make certain any new formula is educationally and constitutionally sound."

The degree to which communities rely upon the property tax and state aid to support local education spending varies widely, although reliance on the property tax has increased in recent years because the Legislature has provided flat or only minimal increases in state aid since 2002.