New extremes in pupil spending
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 04/2/06
It wasn't that many years ago that New Jersey's school funding
inequities, highlighted in Jonathan Kozol's book "Savage
Inequalities," pointed to the gross disparity in spending between
wealthy and poor school districts.
In New Jersey, the extremes were represented by Princeton, which in
1990 spent more than $8,000 per pupil, and Camden, which spent about
$4,000.
Today, those extremes still exist. But thanks to a succession of
court rulings and weak-willed Legislatures, the disparities now come
largely at the expense of middle-class school districts. According to
recently released statistics for 2005-06, the spending gap between
the state's 31 poorest school districts and districts that are
neither rich nor poor continues to widen.
The 31 Abbott districts, the state's poorest, enroll 21 percent of
New Jersey's 1.35 million schoolchildren, but receive about half of
the state's school aid. That doesn't include the disproportionate
share of the billions spent and in some cases wasted on new
school construction and rehabilitation in the Abbotts. The average
per-pupil cost in the Abbotts in 2005-06 was more than one-third
higher than in the non-Abbotts.
If someone were to write a book today focusing on the new inequities
in school funding, the extremes could be represented by Newark and
Brick, both large K-12 districts. Per-pupil spending in Newark is up
to $16,351, nearly double that of Brick ($8,464), Toms River Regional
($8,709) and Jackson ($8,983).
An even more glaring example could be found in two mid-sized K-12
districts Asbury Park ($18,893) and South River ($7,521). That's
right. Per-pupil spending in Asbury Park is 2 1/2 times higher than
in the lower-middle class Middlesex County community.
What is the Legislature doing about it? The same thing it has been
doing for years: Ducking the issue and watching things get further
out of hand. Under Gov. Corzine's budget, things will again get
worse. He has proposed flat school aid for all school districts
except the Abbotts. While he has recommended modest aid reductions
for some of the Abbott districts including Asbury Park, Long Branch
and Neptune overall funding in the Abbotts will increase slightly.
Asbury Park, in line for a $581,971 aid cut less than 1 percent of
its total budget seems confident the aid will be restored. And then
some. Despite flat enrollment, the school board last week introduced
a budget that would raise spending 12.4 percent next year. If you
divide the projected student enrollment of 3,358 by the $89.4 million
budget, it works out to $25,268 per pupil.
The only questions raised by the school board about the
appropriateness of spending $8 million more this year than last
centered around how best to wrest the money from Trenton. "I think
the state is reasonable," Business Administrator Aiman Mahmoud
said. "And I think the state will attempt to work with us to give us
the funding we need to operate the district." If history repeats
itself, Asbury Park will get that and far more.
The board knows full well it doesn't hurt to ask for the sky. And it
has done just that. Its budget summary includes a one-page list of
new spending requests, including a professional development
consultant, $173,800; another professional development consultant,
$150,717; permanent substitutes, $84,000; and a social worker,
$85,000. Asbury Park's ratio of 1 teacher for every 9.3 students is
the second lowest of the Abbotts. Only Keansburg, another district
addicted to state aid, is lower (1 for every 8.4).
The Asbury Park school board won't hear any objections about the
budget from the community, which the board promised last week would
not be asked to contribute any more than the current $4.8 million
an amount that hasn't changed for the past six years. When people who
live outside the district pick up 94 percent of the tab as is the
case in Asbury Park why complain?
What's remarkable is that more people residing outside the Abbott
districts the ones who are picking up the Abbott tab while being
told there's no money for their schools aren't downright apoplectic
by now. We hope we won't have to wait for another book on school
spending disparities before the governor and Legislature do something
about them.
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