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Former governors reflect on school aid during forum at university

By Katie Wagner, Staff Writer
   Former New Jersey governors Brendan Byrne, Donald DiFrancesco and James Florio emphasized the strides the state’s public school system has taken since the state Supreme Court identified certain urban districts as Abbott Districts in 1997 and 1998, while also claiming there is still room for improvement in some of these schools, during a panel discussion at Princeton University on Friday.
   The difficulty of helping disadvantaged children catch up to those with wealthier and more educated parents and the inefficiency of the state’s legislature regarding education reforms were cited as explanations for the achievement gap that still exists between the poor and the more wealthy students in public schools.
   The discussion came as Governor Corzine was introducing a new school funding plan and Mr. Florio and Mr. Byrne said they were not familiar enough with it to offer comment. Mr. DiFrancesco said he supported the fundamental idea of the plan, but thought it would difficult to implement.
   Mr. Florio, who served as governor from 1990 though 1994, said, the rulings in the Abbott vs. Burke court case put teeth into the need to put more state money into education. A ruling that found that education provided to urban school children was inadequate and unconstitutional, was followed by rulings that ordered New Jersey to provide a comprehensive set of programs and reforms, including standard-based education supported by equalized funding to the state’s poorer urban districts.
   ”We do know that high proficiency districts happen to be affluent. Money is a difference,” Mr. Florio said.
   Mr. DiFrancesco, who served the dual role of governor and Senate president in 2001, said, “The focus on the school district or the school just made sense at the time. I think in a lot of the Abbott districts funds had been an issue. The problems of cities still persisted year after year.”
   Mr. Byrne, who served as governor from 1974 to 1982, also attributed the poorer districts’ improvements to the additional state funding they’ve been given.
   ”The state has contributed to the funding to bring the lowest proficiency districts up to levels of the higher proficiency districts,” former Gov. Byrne said.
   ”When we talk about school funding, we talk about how much you need and more, but you never hear what you need it for,” Mr. Byrne said. “I still think we need to start looking at where the money is going. . . Over the years, it has been determined that classroom size, the quality of education a teacher has received and the quality of the physical facility are indicators of good outcomes for students.”
   He added, the parents and the curriculums are important to educating children as well, suggesting that public school curriculums need to be changed to adapt to the way children in the 21st century are learning.
   ”We need to teach children how to think and we’re not doing that,” Mr. Byrne said.
   Another concern raised by Mr. Byrne was that kindergarten possibly was too late to help a child with uneducated parents catch up to a daughter or son of college graduates.
   All three former governors emphasized the benefits of providing quality education to students at the youngest age possible, with Mr. Byrne and Mr. DiFrancesco expressing their support for publicly funded pre-schools.
   ”I’ve found that pre-school education is a great thing,” Mr. DiFrancesco said.
  Mr. Byrne added, “You’ve got to get them early and you’ve got to not only get the kids, you’ve got to get the parents reading to them.”
   A method for helping disadvantaged children discussed during the panel was increasing the involvement of local businesses and community groups, such as churches.
   ”Business communities’ involvement has really helped,” Mr. Florio said. “What’s happened is the business community is realizing the workforce of the future is everywhere.”
   Mr. Florio and Mr. DiFrancesco noted that the legislature’s inability to efficiently create effective education reforms was one of the reasons they thought other sources of help needed to be sought for improving education.
   ”The problem is legislators view themselves as being short-term and dealing with education takes years,” Mr. DiFrancesco said. “So you have to start lobbying to deal with the kids’ problems even though you may not see results for 10 years.”
   Mr. Florio added, “In New Jersey, the situation is such that legislation is not capable of being able to launch initiatives. The problems we’re facing are so complex that the legislative branch of government doesn’t seem to be up to the task.”