Abbott cities attack state school aid plans Needy communities say 'callous' formula will limit kids' education Thursday, May 01, 2008 • BY DUNSTAN McNICHOL • Star-Ledger Staff Attorneys for schoolchildren in 31 needy communities yesterday urged the state Supreme Court to deny Gov. Jon Corzine's effort to end the long-running Abbott vs. Burke lawsuit over public school aid and called the governor's new school funding formula "a callous, budget-driven effort." Joined by urban mayors and child advocates, the attorneys filed more than 100 pages of legal briefs arguing that the state has no evi dence that its $7.8 billion school funding plan will address the long- standing social and economic barriers that the court says urban schoolchildren face. "At bottom, the state's proposal (would) turn its back on the severe and extreme disadvantages of Abbott school children," the brief filed by the Education Law Center said. "There is simply no basis ... to, once again, consign untold future generation(s) of Abbott children to pay the price so dearly exacted upon prior generations of those children." State attorneys on March 17 asked the court to declare Corzine's new funding formula constitutional, and to end the series of court orders that had required the state to steer billions of dollars in special state aid to the 31 communities included in the Abbott case. Under the rulings, state aid to those "Abbott" communities consumed more than half the $7.3 billion in state school aid distributed last year. Corzine administration officials argue that their new plan for handing out school aid assures that needy children will be ensured access to an adequate education, regardless of where they live. "Our position is this is not only constitutional, but provides the necessary resources to educate every child in the state," said state Education Commissioner Lucille Davy. "We would not have put this formula forward if we didn't think it was constitutional." The Education Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups argue that the new formula is underfunded and will prompt massive tax hikes or cuts in school services in the state's poorest cities. "The state is asking struggling municipalities to choose between the future of their communities and the future of their children," said Irvington Mayor Wayne Smith, president of the Urban Mayors' Association. "That is exactly the untenable choice the court sought to prohibit." Corzine said he hoped to put to rest the decades-long legal battle over how the state supports public schools in the state's neediest communities with passage of his school funding overhaul earlier this year. At its core, the formula at tempts to define how much it costs to deliver an "adequate" public education to each community in the state, and then allots every community enough funding to bankroll the required schooling. Critics complained that the plan was underfunded, poorly devised and based on dubious cost and demographic assumptions. Dunstan McNichol may be reached at dmcnichol@starled ger.com or (609) 989-0341. © 2008 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with permission.