Funding Alert

The Department of Education determined in an internal state report that more funding is needed to properly fund the state’s public schools and that what is spent, is unevenly distributed among the state’s districts. The shortfall is reportedly about $500 million overall, relatively small compared to the total $16 billion spent on education in the state. The report was prepared in 2003, with annual updates prepared in 2004 and 2005. The report has never been released to the public despite its relevance to the ongoing public debate about property taxes and school funding.

On July 17, 2006, the Education Law Center filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education seeking to force the department to release the study. Despite several requests made by ELC under New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act, the department has refused to disclose the cost study, arguing that the information is "deliberative" in nature. ELC argues that the data and information gathered by the department is factual in nature, not deliberative and of crucial importance to the public as the legislature prepares for a special session on property taxes and a new school funding formula.

In a July 19 article, the Star Ledger quoted Richard Rosenberg, who led the cost study project as DOE assistant commissioner for finance, as saying that the study found that spending in most New Jersey districts was "fairly close to the mark." Middle income districts appeared to be especially underfunded because they were not wealthy enough to raise enough funding locally nor poor enough to receive extra funding from the state through Abbott v. Burke mandated funding.

The Star Ledger article also quoted John Augenblick, a Denver based school finance expert, who said that the cost study fit the pattern of other states where programs to educate students with special needs are significantly more expensive. These children include English language learners, students with disabilities and students of poverty.