Abbott districts stand to lose at least $605 million in state aid under Governor Jon Corzine’s proposed school funding formula, an ELC preliminary analysis shows. Twenty-six districts will see state aid reductions, with significant losses in many districts. The biggest losers are Jersey City ($111m), Newark ($87.5m), Paterson ($49.5m), Camden ($48.1m), Vineland ($42.5m), Trenton ($34.1m) and East Orange ($39.7m).

A more definitive estimate of the aid loss requires analysis of detailed formula calculations, which Commissioner of Education Lucille Davy refuses to make public. It is quite possible that, if that data were analyzed, the districts’ state aid reductions may be even higher.

The aid losses are caused, at least in part, by the budgets constructed by the NJDOE and used in the Governor’s formula. These budgets are based on hypothetical models and are below the levels of adequate funding established by the NJ Supreme Court in the landmark Abbott v. Burke rulings.

In addition, it appears the formula will shift more of the cost of education in the Abbott districts onto local city taxpayers, even though these districts already have high property taxes and, because of the tremendous demand for police, fire and other services, have been found by the Court to be in "municipal overburden."

In order to prevent these losses right away the Governor is proposing to provide additional aid, over and above his formula, to lessen the harm to the Abbott children and schools for three years. The amount of this "off formula" aid has been arbitrarily fixed to give the districts a 2% aid increase this year, but the amount will remain flat for the next two years.

As a result, many Abbott districts are now reporting they will have no choice but to make significant cuts this coming year in order to meet fixed, non-discretionary cost increases, such as teacher contracts, health benefits and energy costs. These cuts will continue and get worse over the next two years as the hold harmless aid remains flat. Finally, it is unclear what will happen when the three-year "hold harmless" period expires.

On a related matter, it is reported that the Assembly Education and Appropriations Committee will hold only one public hearing on Governor's proposal on Thursday, December 27th, two days after Christmas. This will allow the Legislature to approve the formula on either January 3rd or the 7th, before the lameduck session expires.

Prepared: December 19, 2007

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