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New Jersey cries uncle

New Jersey is saying enough is enough on education spending:

New Jersey’s 31 neediest school districts want too much money, and the state can no longer afford their increasingly high demands, the state attorney general told New Jersey’s Supreme Court yesterday.

"We have gotten to a point where the supplemental funding requests of some districts are truly shocking," Zulima Farber said during an application to freeze funding for the so-called Abbott districts for one year.

Camden, she said, asked for $78 million in new supplemental aid – an increase of more than 100 percent. Vineland wants an increase of $34 million, or 66 percent, and Passaic $31 million more, or 55 percent.

Buried deeper in the story is this:

Average per-pupil spending in New Jersey districts is $11,056. Abbott districts average $14,287, led by Asbury Park’s $18,893.

Under Abbott v. Burke, a series of state Supreme Court decisions that began in the 1980s, the state must pay to educate students in the 31 special-needs districts at the same level that taxpayers in the state’s wealthy suburban districts do.

Astute readers will recognize that New Jersey average per-pupil spending is nearly the highest in the nation. 

All this follows a round of school budget defeats last month:

The message came loud and clear in the soundest trouncing of school budgets in years: New Jersey voters’ wallets have been hit too hard, and they struck back in the only way available to them.

Just 53 percent of school budgets statewide passed Tuesday, a steep drop from last year’s 71 percent and the lowest approval rate since 1994.

South Jersey budgets fared even worse, with just 40 percent passing.

New Jersey’s property taxes are already the highest in the nation, and the idea of a heavier burden appeared to be too much for some.