New Jersey Supreme Court Upholds State School Funding

The New Jersey Supreme Court upheld the school funding system that the state Legislature and Governor Jon Corzine imposed last year which replaced a system that funded extra money to the poorest districts under a series of cases known as Abbott v. Burke. The article states, “By relieving the state of the Abbott funding orders, the court deferred to elected officials in a way that it has not done in the past two decades, former Supreme Court Justice Peter Verniero said in a telephone interview.” “This is an historic decision that signals a new era of school funding based on a new statute and a new approach that the court has found constitutional,” Verniero said. “The court is saying that the political branches deserve deference. There is a sense in the opinion that we should de-emphasize litigation and re-emphasize education.”