Corzine’s “New Formula For Success” Lacks Logic, Accountability and Financial Responsibility

Governor Jon Corzine released his long awaited school spending and state aid plan yesterday. It contains all of the elements we have been warning our readers about for more than a year.

It was clear back then that Corzine’s plan would expand the Abbott school district spending and funding formulas to more districts. That’s exactly what the Governor’s “New Formula for Success" proposes.

Corzine is pushing ahead despite, as we pointed out in early May, 2006, that his administration admitted the Abbott model has been a failure. To the New Jersey Supreme Court his administration unequivocally stated:

“Abbott districts have been spending at some of the highest levels in the State, and well beyond non-Abbott districts, with no discernable correlation to improved achievement.”

Department of Education Commissioner Lucille Davy said:

“I'm concerned that we're spending $18,000 a kid in Asbury Park, for example, and their results are near the bottom in almost any measure. We need to figure out why we are not getting the outcomes.. It's clearly not a matter of resources."

Davy said that just over eighteen months ago and yet, yesterday, Corzine proposed increasing state aid to Asbury Park to $23,004 per student. Is there any logic, accountability or fiscal responsibility in that decision? And $23,004 is just the direct state aid figure and doesn’t include additional funding that will be spent by Asbury Park from local and federal sources, plus other state aid funding programs.

Governor Corzine has chosen to replicate a failed program that has produced the highest property taxes in the nation and has nearly bankrupted the state’s treasury.

The Governor has not proposed a “property tax relief” program, but a plan designed to increase government spending and to ensure property tax increases. He should be stopped!