Targeted at-risk aid comes with restrictions that will prevent the vast majority of eligible school districts from using the funds for property-tax relief or to free up money for other purposes. Part of Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s proposed state budget, the at-risk funding—new for 2007-2008—amounts to approximately $66 million statewide and will be directed to non-Abbott school districts with concentrations of low income students.

• The aid must be applied to programs aimed at closing the achievement gap, such as academic preschool, full-day kindergarten, and elementary school literacy.
• The funding must go toward new or enhanced programs. The money cannot be included as revenue in the district’s proposed 2007-2008 budget. Consequently, targeted at-risk aid will not free up funds for use in other program areas or for property tax relief.

Guidelines Needed Commissioner of Education Lucille E. Davy has indicated that there may be some exceptions to these parameters for districts with fully developed programming for at-risk students.

Davy also indicated that the education department will issue guidelines on the use of the at-risk funds.

Districts that cannot apply the targeted at-risk funds to new or enhanced programs in 2007-2008 will be allowed to bank the money for future use.

In spite of the restrictions on the use of targeted at-risk aid, the state Department of Education’s Web site has factored the full amount of at-risk aid into the 2007-2008 state aid summaries for individual school districts.

Similar CEIFA Category Two hundred seventeen non-Abbott districts qualify for targeted at-risk aid. Districts where 15 percent to 20 percent of schoolchildren qualify for free or reduced-price lunch are eligible to receive $250 for each of their low-income pupils. In districts where more than 20 percent of the students receive free or reduced-price lunch, the state would provide $500 per low-income pupil.

Targeted at risk aid is similar to a program under the state’s defunct funding system, the Comprehensive Educational Improvement and Funding Act. Called “demonstrably effective program aid,” that funding category underwrote specialized programs in individual school buildings with concentrations of low-income students.

Non-Abbott Aid Gov. Corzine’s proposed 2007-2008 state budget includes $300 million in new direct aid to non-Abbott school districts. The new funding breaks down as follows:

• $194 million for a 3 percent, across-the-board increase in state aid;
• $66 million for targeted at-risk aid;
• $26 million for districts that currently operate full-day kindergarten; 
• $10-million grant program to improve pre-school programs.

Abbott Aid Education Opportunity Aid for the 31 Abbott school districts would increase by 3 percent. However, distribution of the funds has yet to be determined. Additionally, 16 of the Abbott districts will have to increase their local property tax levies to make up for small cuts in state aid and to maintain spending parity with the state’s wealthiest communities as required by court decision.