Tommy is closer to the number then I was
I think AP is somewhere around $57m in state aid - down from around $80m in
state aid.
Add to that what the taxpayers pay in school taxes and you have a nice budget.
heavy in
admin, legal costs. One of the highest per student costs in the nation. "Only
an avg of
$11 per month increase". Corzine's efforts to control costs only get tangled up
in
lobbying efforts by unions and the "lawyer run" Education Law Center
The caution here is that property owners of AP and other districts, will be
asked over the
next few years to be paying more and more of "their fair share". One way to
this is to
encourage, lure, assist whatever you want to call it, more tax paying big
business to
Asbury. Figure out how those beachfront $, if delivered will benefit the rest
of the town
and the tax base. CONTROL spending, as if it was actually money coming out of
your own
pocket.
June 10, 2007
EDUCATION
Abbott School Districts Among the Top Spenders
By FORD FESSENDEN
NEW JERSEY'S Abbott districts, the urban school systems that sued the state 26
years ago
to gain equal footing with affluent districts, are now among the
highest-spending school
districts in the country, according to newly released data from the United
States Census
Bureau.
The districts spent more money per student than most rich districts in New
Jersey in
2004-5, the census data show. Among the 30 kindergarten-to-12th-grade districts
of
500 or more students that spent the most, 22 were Abbotts, including the top
three
Asbury Park, Hoboken and Newark. There are 31 Abbott districts.
Asbury Park spent $23,572 per student, according to the census, while the
highest-
ranking non-Abbott district, Wildwood City, spent $19,912. The state average
was
$13,613, and the national average was $8,315.
The census survey, the most recent national data available, demonstrates anew
the high
costs of public education in the region: Among the kindergarten-to-12th-grade
districts
with at least 500 students nationwide, 89 of the 100 top-spending districts per
student
are in the region, including 67 in the New York City suburbs and 14 in New
Jersey.
But the survey also shows how New Jersey, after years of litigation, is
approaching an
ideal: Enough money in poor schools to provide not only the same basic
educational
program as the highest-achieving districts, but also programs to redress the
special
problems of poverty.
"There's no question that New Jersey, because of Abbott, has gone farther than
any other
state in ensuring equitable resources for children in high poverty and high
minority
districts," said David G. Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law
Center, which
filed the lawsuit known as Abbott v. Burke in 1981 on behalf of urban children.
"If need is
driving the decisions, and it should be, then the higher-poverty districts
should be
spending the most money."
Abbott schools received $3.5 billion in state aid in the 10 years after a 1996
court ruling,
and whether the Abbotts have been spending the money well has become an issue
as the
dollars have mounted. Audits of four Abbott districts released in February
showed
numerous spending excesses, and more audits will be released this summer.
A legislative committee is considering a new formula for state education aid
that could
substantially alter the court-imposed method.
"It is clear that the Abbott funding system hasn't worked we are spending
some of the
largest sums of money in the country in those schools, but we are not seeing
the full
effect of it," said State Representative Bill Baroni, a Republican from
Hamilton in Mercer
County. "In some districts we have seen real academic success, and in others we
haven't."
Gov. Jon S. Corzine and the Legislature have also indicated a desire to slow
spending
growth in Abbott districts. This year, in legislation sending districts
millions of new
dollars in state education aid, the Abbott districts received only small
increases.
But it is clear that New Jersey, under pressure after a series of rulings from
the State
Supreme Court dating back two decades, has moved a long way toward ameliorating
the
vast differences in wealth between cities and suburbs that result in unequal
education
spending in most states. The court ruled in 1990 that the state must give the
Abbotts
enough aid that they can spend the same per student on basic education programs
as the
richest districts. The districts largely achieved that parity by 1997, Mr.
Sciarra said.
The court also ruled that the districts must receive additional money for
remediating the
needs of poor students, with programs like early childhood schooling. Those
funds, which
the state began to allocate in 2000, have taken the Abbott districts from
parity with
wealthy ones to their position now as the highest-spending districts.
"The state has, since 1990, shifted from a regressive (lower spending in higher
poverty
districts) to a flat system in the later 1990s, to a progressive one by 2005,"
Bruce D.
Baker, an associate professor at the University of Kansas who has reviewed the
census
data, wrote in an e-mail message.
Courts in many states, including New York and Connecticut, have ordered
legislatures to
spend more in poor districts, but the New Jersey court has held that the
standard for
judging the amount spent is a very high one.
"The Abbott decision is unique in the country in that the decision calls for
parity with the
wealthiest districts in the state," said Lynne Strickland, executive director
of the Garden
State Coalition of Schools, which represents about 150 districts. "The court
also said they
are entitled to particularized-needs cost over and above that level, and the
result is that
some Abbott districts are spending $2,500 more per student than wealthy
suburban
districts."
The census figures, which come from a yearly survey of local government
finances, differ
from state figures released in February. They include some spending that state
calculations of per-pupil spending may not, like revenue from the federal
government
and transportation costs. The numbers do not include capital spending.
Census officials say the numbers are comparable across state line
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