Corzine explains his school aid plan

Gov. Jon S. Corzine's new school aid plan will include roughly one-third of the spending increase needed to meet its own funding standards and prevent schools from losing money, the governor said in an interview Tuesday.
Corzine said it would take a roughly $1.5 billion spending hike to fully fund schools the way the new formula envisions and prevent any districts from losing money, as he has promised. Limited by the state's tight finances, however, Corzine is expected to propose a $400 million to $500 million aid increase in a plan to help schools that have seen their state support stagnate over the past six years."
I want to make headway in getting this into fairness for all of those people that are behind," Corzine said.
He pointed especially to middle-class districts that have needy students but are not among the 31 poor, urban "Abbott" districts that receive enhanced state aid. Schools outside the Abbott districts are home to 49 percent of the students who receive free or reduced-price lunches, which is used as a measure of poverty, Corzine said.
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