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Sunday, January 06, 2008 • BY JOHN MOONEY • Star-Ledger Staff

The last time New Jersey's Legislature approved a new school funding formula in 1996, the plan won in the state Senate by seven votes, virtually along party lines.

When the Legislature tomorrow takes up Gov. Jon Corzine's controversial plan to again revamp how the state funds its public schools, many observers and legislators say the margin could be even tighter, with Corzine needing at least a few Republicans to join his Democratic majority.

Corzine's staff and supporters of the $7.8 billion plan were working over the weekend to muster the necessary 21 votes in the Senate and 41 in the Assembly, with some saying the Senate prospects appeared the most uncertain.

Worries boiled over after the caucus of African-American legislators questioned whether the measure will hurt needy urban schools, potentially taking a half-dozen Democratic votes from the party's slim majority of 22 of 40 senators.

That leaves Corzine and state Senate President Richard Codey depending on at least that many Republicans to gain passage, with GOP leaders saying the wooing has begun.

"Until you count the votes you never know," Corzine said yesterday from Nevada, where he was stumping for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. "I'm confident, but I don't think anything is certain until the votes are counted. We're taking nothing for granted."

Others said negotiations were sure to extend into tomorrow in a political system notorious for its horse-trading of committee appointments, public jobs and various aid programs.

"I think the governor will get the 21 votes," said Michael Vrancik, chief lobbyist for the state's school boards association and a supporter of the measure. "The question is what he needs to do to get them."

Corzine's funding plan calls for a $532.8 million increase in aid to public schools overall, but restructures how it is distributed.

Seeking to break away from the current system that provides the bulk of state money to the 31 poorest districts falling under the state Supreme Court's Abbott vs. Burke mandates, it steers more aid to non-Abbott districts that also have rising numbers of poor and immigrant students.

It also reworks how the state pays for special education and would significantly increase money for preschool, although not immediately.

The measure has gained support among some working-class and middle-income districts that would stand to benefit the most, but it has been criticized by advocates for the poorest and richest districts that they said would stand to lose or see minimal increases.

Legislators representing some of these districts say they have heard the complaints, with those in urban districts especially concerned. A leader of the black caucus said at least four of the six members in the Senate, all Democrats, oppose the measure as it stands.

"This is right back to forcing us to either raise property taxes or cut programs," said state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex). "It's just bad legislation the way it is set up now."

'A MAJOR STEP FORWARD'

While widespread concerns have been raised about how quickly the measure is moving through the Legislature, others worry if the plan isn't approved now, an opportunity will be lost.

"If people remain focused on what's important and what's at stake if we don't act, I'm hopeful they will find the political courage to take what for some at this point may be a leap of faith," said state Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex), the sponsor of the Senate bill.

"The longer we wait, the longer the inequities grow," she said.

One Republican who said he was leaning toward supporting the bill was state Sen. Robert Martin (R-Morris), although he said he still wants to review the "fine print."

"I think it does reinvent funding in the state, and does for the most part allow the money to follow the child with no longer this bright line between the Abbotts and the others," he said yesterday. "That's a major step forward."

The weekend jockeying comes as still more details emerge about how the plan will affect districts not just next year but also in the years ahead.

The state on Thursday released data on what it sees as each district's "local fair share" of funding for schools, a key factor in how much the state would pay under the formula. The state previously released its analysis of what it says is an "adequate" amount that each district should spend.

By the proposed formula's math, more than 380 districts are spending more than the state's models deem "adequate," including 231 districts that the state said are also overtaxing their residents.

In addition, legislative researchers on Friday produced a report showing the Abbott communities could face years of flat state funding under the proposed formula.

After an initial jump of $104 million this year, overall aid to the 31 needy communities would grow by only $20 million over the following two years, the Office of Legislative Services projection showed.

State Education Commissioner Lucille Davy quickly pronounced the OLS study "very suspect," and said upcoming projections by her office show a different result.

If approved by the Legislature, the new plan's fate is likely to rest with the state Supreme Court and whether it finds the measure constitutional in serving the state's poorest schoolchildren, in and outside the Abbott districts.

"No matter what everyone says, the decision will be on the field," said Martin, a Seton Hall University law professor. "And the field in this case will be the courts."

Vote is too close to call on school funding measure

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