N.J. must prove sufficient school funding

New Jersey must show that its current level of school funding is sufficient to provide the "thorough and efficient" education required by the state constitution, according to a Supreme Court ruling released Thursday.

In another chapter of the 25-year Abbott v. Burke school-funding case, the court decided, 6-0, to appoint Peter Doyne, a Superior Court judge in Bergen County, to convene a fact-finding hearing on whether Gov. Christie's $1 billion cut to state school aid last year has harmed students.

The Education Law Center - which advocates for 31 mostly urban and poor districts formerly known as "Abbotts" - argued in a hearing last week that the cuts violated a previous ruling by the high court that a 2008 school-funding formula was constitutional only if fully funded.

The state's response was that it was in dire financial straits and made the education cuts in a fair manner.

Faced with an $11 billion budget shortfall, the Christie administration cut education-formula aid by an amount roughly equal to 5 percent of each district's total budget. Low-income districts kept most of their aid, while some affluent districts lost all of theirs.

The law center wanted the court to require the state to fund its aid formula fully to all districts in the years to come.

"The Supreme Court has again reaffirmed that the state's responsibility to provide a thorough and efficient education is fundamental and extends to all students," law center executive director David Sciarra said Thursday.

A spokesman for the governor defended the state's actions.

"We believe the funding levels in the current fiscal year budget - which were necessary to close an $11 billion deficit - were done in an equitable and legal manner and should be upheld," said Michael Drewniak, the governor's spokesman.

Christie has repeatedly pointed to the achievement gap between the state's urban and suburban districts despite large infusions of funding, and he believes his proposed education changes will narrow that gap, Drewniak noted.

The court action will not cause the governor to postpone the budget process, he said. Christie is expected to unveil his proposed budget before the judge's report is due to the court March 31.

In Thursday's order, the court ruled there was not enough information on record to determine whether the current school-aid level provides an adequate education. Doyne served in a similar capacity when the court wanted information before its ruling on the constitutionality of the funding formula.

The state "must bear the burden" of showing that present school funding levels provide "a thorough and efficient education as measured by the comprehensive core curriculum standards in districts with high, medium, and low concentrations of disadvantaged pupils," according to the ruling.

The parties in the case will have until around mid-April to respond to Doyne's findings.

The state's formula law, enacted during the Corzine administration, was intended to distribute aid more evenly to all districts with poor children. Critics of decisions in the Abbott case contended that the 31 districts got a disproportionately large share of aid.