Schools: Abbott District Waste
19
May
5/19/2008:
Some news about how despite audits, Abbott school districts still waste money:
School districts not so “needy”:
Same song, second verse: New audits of the Abbott school districts find more questionable spending. This time it’s to the tune of $83 million. What good are these audits if things never change while state bureaucrats turn the other cheek to waste?
Nothing could justify the outrageous spending in some of the 31 heavily state-subsidized districts, but what makes it even worse is they get more than half the state’s education budget. People far from offending districts pay for it and have no say in the matter.
The “needy” district system needs to be examined and adjusted. Some of the 31 Abbotts probably won’t even qualify as needy now.
What does the Corzine administration say? Education Commissioner Lucille Davy confirms the state isn’t withholding money from districts with questionable expenditures. Nor does she plan to get back the wasted money. Where is the incentive to clean up the mess?
(By the way, when Davy’s husband, Jim, left state government in January 2006, the feds were looking into whether he used his office to promote a consulting gig he was starting. What happened to that, U.S. Attorney Chris Christie?)
Sen. Steve Oroho, R-Sussex, noted that some of the Abbott districts will get budget hikes of as much as 16 percent under the new school funding formula rushed through the lame-duck Legislature four months ago.
“These revelations make it clear the Legislature should revisit the school funding formula immediately,” he said. He says state funding should be based on children’s needs, not assigned on an outdated analysis of which districts are most needy.
Hoboken, where Gov. Corzine lives, is an Abbott district.
May 19th 2008 - 10:57:36 |
The value of Hobokens assessed valuations seems to have exceeded the bar to get this funding. Also, note…Corzine lives here but, please note that after his address earlier this year to state officials regarding budget…For the first time in the history of New Jersey, NO ONE APPLAUDED. Secondly, I was watching the camera filming the audience, never saw so many jaws on the floor…
Back to Hoboken…..many familys left Hoboken (Hudson Cty) to more affordable areas over the past years, where now, those districts are busting out of the seams and were poorer to begin with, (meaning, they were built for seasonal living)
My guess is that Corzine will do what is necessary, put the funding where its needed.
I’d imagine, Hoboken, with so many million dollar condos, I mean a walk up goes for 400G….How can we continue to get funding?
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May 19th 2008 - 20:09:36 |
I believe that Abbott funding has more to do with the number of children that qualify for discounted or free lunch and less to do with the average amount of real estate. Many of the kids that go to the public schools qualify hence Hoboken’s Abbott standing. As long as the public schools are filled with kids who can’t afford lunch, Hoboken will get a fat piece of the Abbott pie.
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May 20th 2008 - 18:45:18 |
Hoboken isn’t the only place where the hogs fill up at the abbot district trough. In the town of keansburg in monmouth cty. the out going school supt. is getting a “combined severance& benefit package”of $741,000. This school district is horrible and is in worse shape then hoboken. So this abbot designation is a way for adminstrators to fatten the golden parachutes. Just imagine how many books or supplies this would buy. Also she still gets a pension. F#*^ing amazing
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