A new report by the Education Law Center, the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, the Alliance for Quality Education, and the Public Policy and Education Fund of New York contrasts the funding of public education in New York and New Jersey and finds two different worlds in two neighboring states:
On opposite sides of the Hudson River, New York and New Jersey stand only a mile apart. But when it comes to how they fund their public schools, the yawning gulf between these two states is wide and deep.
Unfair describes school funding in New York. Many New York children in high poverty districts are not provided with the basic resources and opportunities necessary to succeed in school, while their peers in affluent districts enjoy all the advantages of well-‐resourced schools.
In sharp contrast, New Jersey school funding is fair. The state’s finance system adjusts for the additional need created by student poverty and other disadvantages, and includes funds for universal, high quality preschool for all three-‐ and four-‐year-‐olds in its lowest wealth communities.1
The bottom line is that New York’s academic performance, as measured by high school graduation rates and test scores, trails New Jersey’s by wide margins.
Bottom line is that equity produces better schools, higher academic performance. And it is just.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As the article shows, NJ is outperforming NY students especially in low income areas. The NJ funding formula is “fairer” to low income areas but the problem at this time is that the current NJ Governor will be taken to court again, since he refuses to use NJ’s funding formula!
Good piece by Kevin Drum on NJ:
“But you might want to choose a different state: New Jersey, which has a high composite score not because it’s mostly white (it’s about 60 percent white), but because it does an outstanding job of teaching kids of all colors. Judging by NAEP scores, it ranks among the top four states in both math and reading for whites, blacks, and Hispanics.
Of course, New Jersey’s poverty rate is pretty low, and we know that poverty is a prime cause of poor educational outcomes. This helps account for New Jersey’s high scores, and also acts as an object lesson in not fetishizing particular countries, states, or programs.
This stuff is complicated, and there’s no point in just substituting one simplistic analysis for another. That said, I’d say Bath is worth listening to.
We should take good ideas from wherever we can find them, but there’s not much reason to go haring around the world looking for educational lodestars to emulate. We have 51 laboratories of democracy right here at home, all of which are more culturally similar to each other than any foreign country is. And some of them do pretty well, already working within the framework of American culture, American laws, American ethnic makeup, and American parents. Why not study them instead?”
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2014/04/it-time-replace-cult-finland-cult-new-jersey
“And it is just.”
And that is the most important part!
Yes, Tim has it right…NJ has a more equitable funding of its schools than NY but ONLY if it is applied and we know that at present it is not.
Please Diane if you see this comment, post a link to Bob Braun’s Ledger’s latest blog post on your site – it gives some insight into why the Newark Public School District is having such dire financial issues…it is an eyeful in terms of how fair things are right now in some parts of NJ! Many thanks
http://bobbraunsledger.com/no-for-newark-kids-plenty-for-cami-pals/
Diane
I know this is off topic, but I don’t know how to get in touch with you. What is the deal with the program on CNN about Chicago schools?? Is it supposed to be entertainment? Who is writing it?
I don’t understand.
Thanks
Robert Tellman, I don’t know
It was on tonight. I did not watch the entire thing because it made me sick, but the advertisements for it talked about all the school closures causing kids to have to cross rival gang territories, etc.
Here’s another example of inequity: The School District of Philadelphia has proposed to have two neighborhood elementary schools turned over to charter management organizations. These two schools will receive extra money if turned over to the charter operator, but no extra money at present if they remain a District-run school. Parents have the final say, but it’s not a fair choice. Read more about it here:
Steel, Muñoz-Marin elementaries chosen for possible Renaissance charter conversion: http://thenotebook.org/blog/147099/steel-munoz-marin-chosen-charter-conversion
2 Philly schools may become charters, if parents agree: http://articles.philly.com/2014-04-02/news/48805668_1_charter-schools-traditional-public-schools-renaissance-schools#VVxMwTfhR5h5tpk7.99
There’s a lot of New York that isn’t across the Hudson River from NJ. If you’re looking at unfair funding, look upstate.