Garden State Bar Association

New Jersey's Poorest Schools Receive 500 Million Reasons To Celebrate

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A $500 MILLION DOLLARS WIN FOR FOR NEW JERSEY'S 31 ABBOTT SCHOOL DISTRICTS

Today, New Jersey's highest Court penned another chapter in the 30 years old Abbott school finance litigation.  Filed in 1981, the Abbott case challenged the manner by which the State funded the education of students in its poorest districts.  The suit questioned whether the New Jersey Constitution's mandate of a "thorough and efficient education" proved true in poor and urban districts. Four years later, the Court issued its first ruling, ordering that urban children must be provided with a standard of education equal to their counterparts in New Jersey's wealthiest districts. 

Last year, to help close the State's $11 billion dollars budget deficit, Governor Chris Christie eliminated five percent of the budget of individual school districts.  Today's 3-2 ruling, authored by Justice Jaynee LaVeccia, returns $500 million of the amount cut to the State's 31 Abbott districts.  According to Justice LaVeccia, the cuts to the Abbott district's funding undermined the spirit of the commitment made to the State's neediest children in the Abbott decision, and "[r]egrettably, the state did not honor its commitment."

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