Newark, NJ – April 30, 2009

Education Law Center (ELC) attorneys, urban school advocates and supporters of education equity returned to the NJ Supreme Court on April 28 to urge the justices to retain the historic Abbott remedies established by earlier courts.

During oral argument before the court in the last legal proceeding in the current Abbott case, David Sciarra, ELC Executive Director and attorney for the Abbott schoolchildren, again challenged the constitutional basis for applying the School Funding Reform Act (SFRA) to the Abbott districts. Mr. Sciarra noted, among other things, that the conditions that led prior Courts to establish the Abbott mandates are still in place.

"The extreme poverty, the racial isolation, those conditions have not changed and in some cases are worse," Mr. Sciarra said to the Justices.

Mr. Sciarra noted that at-risk children living outside the Abbott districts have been shortchanged in school funding because the Legislature stopped funding the prior formula in 2002. But he let the Justices know that the Legislature is now preparing to abandon the new SFRA formula by depriving those children in 2009-10 of over $300 million in long-overdue funds promised in the formula (Read the ELC news release "New School Aid Formula Underfunded by $300 Million")

"It’s wrong to take resources from the Abbott schoolchildren, as if that were the only way to give needed funding to at-risk children in other districts," Mr. Sciarra said. "The State is obligated to meet the exceptional needs of students in the high poverty Abbott districts, while taking care of needy students in other districts. The SFRA formula just pits the needs of students in different zip codes against each other."

Prior to the court proceedings, members of the Our Children/Our Schools campaign, the Statewide Education Organizing Committee and the NJ Education Organizing Collaborative rallied outside the Hughes Justice Complex.

With slogans including "SFRA – No Way!" and "Educational Justice is Our Right – Take It Away and We Will Fight!" rally participants expressed their frustration with program and staff cuts in the Abbott districts and their concern that educational gains will soon be lost.

The assembled crowd heard from a number of speakers, including James E. Harris, president of the NJ State Conference of the NAACP. In a press release distributed at the rally, Mr. Harris urged the justices to find the SFRA unconstitutional as applied to the Abbott districts and to maintain parity funding with the high-achieving suburban districts.

"The NJ NAACP appeals to the New Jersey Supreme Court to conclude that it is counterproductive to allow the savage inequalities in the public schools in New Jersey, the second wealthiest state in the United States of America," Mr. Harris wrote in his release.

A number of parents from Newark, Paterson, Jersey City and Asbury Park also addressed rally participants, expressing their fear that if the Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the formula in short order their districts will be returned to the bad old days of inequitable and insufficient funding and the resulting educational opportunity gaps. Read comments made by Paterson education advocates and a report on the court proceedings that appeared on NorthJersey.com.

Mr. Sciarra called upon supporters of public education across the state, including those in suburban districts, to join their friends in urban communities to demand a complete overhaul of the SFRA to address the serious problems all districts face under this inadequate and inequitable formula.

View a webcast of the April 28 oral arguments in the Abbott v. Burke case by visiting NJ Courts Online and choosing the link "Abbott v. Burke oral arguments heard by the New Jersey Supreme Court."

For more information contact:
Sharon Krengel
Policy & Outreach Coordinator
skrengel@edlawcenter.org