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N.J. school-funding formula still a year away

TRENTON - The state will implement a new way to fund public schools for the school year that starts in September 2008, the state's education commissioner told lawmakers yesterday.

TRENTON - The state will implement a new way to fund public schools for the school year that starts in September 2008, the state's education commissioner told lawmakers yesterday.

Gov. Corzine had wanted a new school-funding formula in place for next school year to help control the nation's highest property taxes, but the plan is still not ready.

Lucille E. Davy, the state education commissioner, told the Assembly Budget Committee that a new formula should be ready by year's end, giving local school officials enough time to prepare for it for the 2008-09 school year.

"We certainly have the beginnings of a framework," she told lawmakers, who expressed frustration a new plan hadn't been unveiled.

The state sends most school funding to 31 needy school districts, which have 22 percent of the state's student population but get about 55 percent of all state school aid. That has sparked outcry from many suburban and rural schools that haven't seen aid increased in five years.

Corzine wants to redo funding to focus aid on schools that have the most special-needs students, no matter where the schools are located.

Legislators who have spent much of the last year trying to cut property taxes said they were dismayed a plan had not been completed.

"We need to come up with a sustainable, equitable funding formula that is going to provide the support these high-enrollment-growth districts desperately need," said Assemblyman Joe Malone (R., Burlington). "If we do not do so, property taxes will continue to climb and we will see more and more student services and programs cut back."

Others said the new plan could not be rushed.

"Even though we would like to see this yesterday, it doesn't make very much sense for us to move this along and then find we are right back where we started from," said Assemblyman William Payne (D., Essex).

The state spends more than $20 billion a year on public schools - a third of all state spending and more than half of all property taxes collected.

Corzine has proposed a 3 percent school-aid increase for the fiscal year that starts July 1, but the New Jersey School Boards Association yesterday noted that a recent Rutgers University analysis found schools were shorted $846 million last year.