$35 Billion Dollars Later

The New York Times writes “In New Jersey, System to Help Poorest Schools Faces Criticism”. Gee, we wonder why? $35 billion dollars later and second graders in Abbott school districts now learn PowerPoint. Reading and math are so 20th century.

“What we know is lots of money has been spent, and in some places, there is very little to show,” said Lucille E. Davy, the education commissioner.

Here’s the school spending summary the state’s Attorney General and Education Commissioner recently gave to the New Jersey Supreme Court, the real powers to be in the state.

In FY1998, the Abbott average comparative cost per pupil was $8,438, the State average comparative cost per pupil was $7,979, and the I & J [128 wealthiest school districts] average comparative cost per pupil was $8,205. By FY2006, the Abbott average had grown 69% -- to $14,287. Such an amount far exceeds the FY2006 State average comparative cost per pupil of $11,056 and the I & J [wealthy] district average comparative cost per pupil of $11,320.

The $14,287 average cost per Abbott student is just the “comparative cost per pupil” and doesn’t count the additional federal and state funding received by the 31 districts. The total average cost per student in Newark was recently pegged by the Star-Ledger to be about $29,000.

In the meantime, state education officials plan to audit all 31 Abbotts in the next year after finding that the highest-spending districts were making the fewest gains.

$35 billion dollars later and the state is just beginning to realize there’s a problem. They’d better make that forensic audits, because something tells us there’s more than one Bad Superintendent in the business.