TRENTON: NEW JERSEY STAR LEDGER REPORT— State lawyers call last month’s report on school funding cuts a useless and narrow-minded assessment, but advocates for poor students say it’s an incisive condemnation of New Jersey’s failure to support its neediest kids.
The two sides made these arguments in new briefs filed today in the latest installment of the long-running Abbott vs. Burke school funding saga. Both sides are gearing up for the April 20 hearing before the state Supreme Court in a case with far-reaching consequences for the state’s schools and budget.
The Newark-based Education Law Center asks the state’s highest court to force Gov. Chris Christie and lawmakers to spend more on schools. It says the state underfunded schools by $1.6 billion last year and violated the state constitution’s mandate to "provide a thorough and efficient system" of public schools.
The state has pleaded poverty, saying its precarious fiscal situation prevents it from fully funding the formula approved by the court in 2009. It also says the formula is overly generous since it was created right before the economic crash.
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The fault line in today’s briefs is the report from Superior Court Judge Peter Doyne, who was asked by the Supreme Court to study the impact of Christie’s budget cuts before justices made a decision in the case. Doyne concluded they disproportionately harmed poor districts, undercutting the state’s argument that funding cuts had been spread fairly.
After the report was released, the state asked Peter Verniero, the former New Jersey attorney general and Supreme Court justice, to lead its legal team. The brief filed by the state today criticizes Doyne’s report as myopic — it did not consider education policies like teacher tenure or the state’s overall fiscal situation — and having "no basis for any real conclusions."
The state also said the review is incomplete because student performance reviews won’t be available until next January, preventing the court from determining whether students were actually hampered by lower funding.
The Education Law Center, by contrast, heaped praise on Doyne’s report, saying it accurately diagnosed spending cuts as a "grave constitutional violation ... The resulting harm to New Jersey school children ... is severe and immediate."
More than one-third of all school districts statewide, which educate nearly three-fourths of all at-risk students, are funded below the formula’s standards, the Law Center said. Schools have cut teaching positions, increased class sizes and reduced student programs.
The Supreme Court’s decision in the case could have drastic consequences for the state budget, and Democrats and Republicans alike are bracing for the outcome.
If the court orders more funding, Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff said the state may need to gouge funding for things like Medicaid, property-tax relief and municipal aid.
Some Democrats are pushing for a "millionaires tax" on the state’s highest earners to provide more school funding. Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth) criticized the idea, saying the tax would fail to cover all the funding the court may require. "Do the math," he said. "Where are you going to get the rest of the money?"
Even some Democrats who say Christie’s school funding cuts are unconstitutional are apprehensive about the Supreme Court’s decision.
"I hope the court interprets it fairly, and if the governor is right, then we move forward," Assembly Budget Chairman Lou Greenwald (D-Camden) said. "If he’s wrong, then we have work to do."
New Jersey Star Ledger, April 11, 2011. Jarrett Renshaw contributed to this report.
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