By GREGORY J. VOLPE
GANNETT STATE BUREAU

TRENTON — The Corzine administration is asking the state Supreme Court to deem its new school funding formula constitutional, a move that would all but remove the "Abbott" designation given to the state's poorest districts.

The papers submitted Tuesday ask the Supreme Court to free the state from the requirements the court has placed through the years to equalize education funding in districts rich and poor — except a mandate to fund school construction, for which state officials plan to borrow another $2.5 billion.

The new funding formula, known as the School Funding Reform Act, adopted by the Legislature at a frenzied pace during its January lame-duck session to be implemented for the 2008-09 school year, aims to shift the way the state doles out its education dollars from the wealth of a municipality to a child-based formula that focuses on individual students' needs and risks.

READ MORE: http://www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080320/NEWS/803200365

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