Christie: School Funding Formula Giving More To Poor Districts Is 'Unfair'

HILLSBOROUGH, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A fight over school budget funding was raging in New Jersey, with Gov. Chris Christie proposing sweeping new changes.

Christie wants to distribute the $9.1 billion in the school budget equally throughout the state's 600-plus school districts.

He wants to scrap a state formula that goes back to a 1985 state Supreme Court ruling requiring that 31 mostly urban, poorer school districts get a ``thorough and efficient'' education because, he said, results show the plan isn't working.

Christie claimed more than $5 billion goes to poor districts, causing a tremendous train on the state's already high property taxes.

"Fifty-eight percent of the aid from state taxpayers goes to five percent goes to 5 percent of the school districts," Christie said. "This is unfair, it's absurd, and it hasn't worked for 30 years."

Under Christie's plan, each district would get $6,599 of state aid per student. That's a change from the current formula that applies to pupils in cities such as Asbury Park, Camden, Newark and Trenton, where per-pupil funding is nearly $21,000.

Senate Democrats called Christie's proposal a "direct attack" on equal opportunities for schoolchildren, claiming it "discriminates against the poor."

``We're not just creating winners here. There are significant losers,'' said Democratic Assembly budget chairman Gary Schaer. ``To suggest every child is the same is just not the case. To suggest every community is the same is just not the case.''

Republicans rushed to applaud Christie's proposal.

``Nothing is more fair than treating students equally no matter where they live,'' said Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick.

But it's not that black-and-white, says the group that brought the case before New Jersey courts that resulted in the current funding formula. The plan is contrary to the Legislature's wishes and unconstitutional, Education Law Center executive director David Sciarra said.

Christie's concentration on school funding and property taxes comes as polls show record-low approval ratings in New Jersey and as presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who named Christie to lead his White House transition team, endures a rough patch, including the firing of his campaign manager and a low monthly fundraising report.

Christie's proposal also comes as the fiscal year near a close and his proposed roughly $35 billion 2017 budget still pending. Lawmakers are also hashing out a plan to fund road and bridge work, which is paid for through a fund that runs out of borrowing authority on July 1.

It's also Christie's final year and a half as governor.

``I have 18 months left in office, and I will not permit these fundamental truths to not be spoken and acted upon,'' Christie said.

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