NJ Education Report

An editorial this week in the Record serves as a sort of rebuttal to Gordon MacInness’ Star-Ledger piece. MacInness argues (see post below) that the State Supreme Court should back up the DOE’s claim that Abbott designations are no longer necessary because our poor kids live all over the state, not just in 31 districts, and that the new school funding formula (SFRA)will adequately address educational inequities. Emily Goldberg asserts, however, that

In considering whether the Abbott districts can, as a practical matter, make up the shortfall created by SFRA, the special master must also ask: Are the districts-formerly-known-as-Abbotts continuing to experience municipal overburden?

The answer is, as Sarah Palin would say, “You betcha!”

Goldberg, a law professor at the Center for Social Justice at Seton Hall Law School, bases her opinion on some data on housing foreclosures from an organization called the Reinvestment Fund:

The available data show that the link between foreclosures and declining property tax revenue is being felt disproportionately in the Abbott districts. According to the Reinvestment Fund, a group recognized for its research on foreclosure rates, New Jersey experienced an average foreclosure rate of 6.95 foreclosures per 1,000 owner-occupied households in 2005-2006.

So, can we link the rate of foreclosures to educational neediness based on poverty? Let’s try. Here’s a list of the Abbott districts, and here’s a chart showing the rate of foreclosures across the state. Is it bad in the Abbott districts? Sure. But it’s also bad in districts that are non-Abbotts. For example, the chart shows a particularly bad rate of foreclosures in Salem County, but the only Abbott district there is Salem City. There are 13 other school districts in Salem County that don’t have the extra subsidies. Taking a different perspective, Monmouth County appears to be holding its own, but there are 4 Abbott districts in that county.

The correlation between educational need and foreclosures seems a little sketchy. In addition, many poor people don’t even have a mortgage on property; is this the best method to evaluate how we subsidize our poorest children? Goldberg goes on to say,

It goes without saying that this tremendous loss in property tax revenue will be disproportionately felt by poorer urban areas, where foreclosures occur at double and even triple countywide averages.

These numbers suggest that our political leaders are ignoring the disproportionate effect that the economic downturn is having on New Jersey’s poorest cities, and the fact that Abbott districts will be incapable of making up the budget gaps that will be SFRA’s short-sighted legacy.

The issue is not whether Abbott districts will be able to make up budget gaps. The issue is how many other districts in addition to Abbotts – urban, suburban, and rural – will be incapable of adequate funding. Forget about financing a poor district to the level of our wealthiest towns, which the Abbott decisions mandate. How about maintaining current programs way below that level?

New Jersey seems genetically wired to segregate itself into superficial divisions, whether it be urban vs. suburban or Abbott vs. non-Abbott. The truth is that our impoverished kids are all over the map and defy such specious distinctions.