That highlighted a surprising twist for a governor who frequently rails against what he calls the state's lopsided system of school funding: His first budget makes the funding even more unbalanced.
The issue is critical because about a third of the state budget goes to school aid.
Conservatives argue that redistributing school spending more equitably could help reduce property taxes, which are the highest in the country and voters' top concern, according to polls.
Christie's budget cuts about 5 percent of every school district budget. For those that received 5 percent of their budgets from the state last year, that meant losing all state aid.
"I didn't think it was fair that some districts lost every single nickel, while Newark, Jersey City, and Perth Amboy did not," Carroll said. "I thought that the fair thing to do would be to equally distribute the pain with an across-the-board cut in state aid."
The numbers bear out Carroll's concerns.
In fiscal 2008, according to the state Department of Education, 56.6 percent of state school aid went to the 31 Abbott school districts, which under a series of state Supreme Court rulings starting in 1985 were guaranteed additional state support; in fiscal 2009, the first year of a new school-funding formula to end the Abbott designation and allow spending to follow the neediest children - championed by Christie's predecessor, Gov. Jon S. Corzine - 55.1 percent of aid went to the former Abbotts. In fiscal 2010, that figure rose slightly to 55.5 percent.
Under Christie's first budget, the former Abbott schools will receive 58.8 percent of state spending on schools - even more than under the last year of the Abbott system.
