Though N.J. Funding Formula Upheld, Abbott Intact

Recently blessed by the state’s high court, New Jersey’s new school funding formula revolutionizes the way education is financed in the Garden State. But it does not end the 28-year-old lawsuit that helped bring it about.

In a unanimous ruling on May 28, the New Jersey Supreme Court said the funding formula approved by the legislature in January 2008 was constitutional, and found that as a result, 31 poor urban school districts no longer were entitled to special funding equal to what the state’s wealthiest districts spend.

Instead, state aid for all 616 school districts will be calculated with the same formula, which establishes a per-student “base” and assigns “weights”—additional dollars—for children and...