Opinion ID: 2294246
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 45

Heading: Analysis Generally

Text: SFRA represented a methodical attempt to identify and determine the resources needed for all students in the State of New Jersey to achieve the CCCS. It did so by using the Weighted Student Formula with appropriate weights attributable to the upper school level grades, at-risk, LEP, and special education students. Separate consideration was afforded to delivering high quality pre-school to a far broader range of students than offered previously. SFRA represented the culmination of in excess of five years of deliberate, good faith efforts by the State to serve the needs of all students, and importantly, those students schooled in the Abbott districts. The development began with the PJP process beginning in or about 2002 and culminating with the RCE issued on December 12th, 2006. At or about the same time the Joint Legislative Committee on Public School Funding Reform (the Joint Committee) issued its final report and recommendation. Six public hearings were thereafter scheduled and conducted inviting members of the public to comment on the RCE. An opportunity for citizens and various public advocacy groups to be heard was provided. The DOE, with APA's assistance, updated the cost figures and the updated calculations were published on January 19th, 2007. At or about the same time, the DOE retained three nationally renowned experts in the field of school finance  Allen Odden (University of Wisconsin), Lawrence Picus (University of Southern California), and Joseph Olchefske (American Institutes For Research), to review and comment on the findings and methodologies referenced in the RCE. Odden synthesized the reports of his colleagues and issued his report on January 19th, 2007 denominated, the Final Report on the Reviews of the Report on the Cost of Education in New Jersey (the Final Expert Report). Fundamentally, the Final Expert Report found the resources as set forth in the RCE were more than adequate, but certain recommended adjustments were made. After the public hearings were concluded and the Final Expert Report was received by the DOE, it then, again, invited three nationally renowned experts: Thomas Corcoran (Columbia University), Susanna Loeb (Stanford University), and David Monk (Pennsylvania State University), to form an Advisory Panel (the Advisory Panel) to assist in the development of the new funding formula. Additional public meetings were held between April and December 2007. Utilizing public comments, the Final Expert Report, and the suggestions of the Advisory Panel, changes were made and the Formula For Success was issued on December 18th, 2007. D-12. The FFS is the foundation of SFRA. It reflected the numerous changes and enhancements to the resources that had been set forth in the RCE. D-2. The DOE posits, as enacted, the funding formula adopted by SFRA provides more than sufficient money for a thorough and efficient education for the students within the Abbott districts, inclusive of the supplemental programs as mandated in Abbott V and X. This intricate and prolong process reflects the DOE's and the State's meaningful efforts to initiate a uniform spending formula, in lieu of the two-tiered formula, for the students in New Jersey. That is, under SFRA there will no longer be a separate status or formula that applies only to the students in the Abbott districts. The State's laudable goal was to create a transparent, equitable, and predictable funding formula for all its students. It is noted the interests of students in all districts other than the Abbott districts are not concretely before the court. We cannot give an advisory opinion on SFRA's statewide constitutionality. The Abbott v. Burke litigation does not provide this Court with jurisdiction to address the statute's applicability to students not before the Court. Abbott IX, supra, 196 N.J. at 551 [960 A. 2d 360]. It is, though, noteworthy that no amicus before this court sought to represent the vast majority of school children in New Jersey. The restriction that befell the Supreme Court is equally applicable here. As such, the court's focus must be solely upon the constitutionality of SFRA as it applies to the students in the Abbott districts. That said, to intelligently analyze and review SFRA, the court is compelled to also observe the full panoply of rights and expectations of all our students. Abbott districts were created based upon certain identified factors for districts that were urban. Districts with all the necessary factors, but which were not urban, were not so classified. As such, under the current system, students in various DFG A or B districts may be deprived and may have been deprived of many of the benefits afforded to the Abbott district children solely premised on the district not being sufficiently urban. The need to address this inequity is obvious. SFRA is then the attempt to ensure all disadvantaged students, regardless of where they live or how their district is categorized, will receive the necessary educational resources to help these students achieve the CCCS. When forty-nine percent of the in excess of 375,000 at-risk students in 2008 attended schools in non-Abbott districts; when approximately 473,000 minority (Hispanic and African American) students attended public schools and fifty-four percent did so in non-Abbott districts, and when high quality pre-school was only mandated for the Abbott districts ( see generally D-1), the State's goal to create a uniform system becomes clear. Analysis of financial information further substantiates the need for reform. Total state aid to the Abbott districts 2008-2009 is $4.65 billion. Of the $8.429 billion in total State aid, fifty-five percent of the same is allocated to the Abbott districts which enroll twenty-three percent of our students statewide. D-20 ¶ 23. The percentage of enrollment of students in K-12 indicates one-fifth of the students were educated in Abbott districts; four-fifths in non-Abbott districts. D-115. When considering enrollment from preK-12 in 2009 twenty-three percent of the students are educated in Abbott districts; seventy-seven percent in non-Abbott districts. D-114. Despite the same, Abbott districts receive the majority of state aid for education. If the Abbott districts do not increase tax levies beyond compliance with the required minimum tax levy, Abbott districts will have available an average of $17,151 in revenues per pupil for the 2008-2009 school year. Assuming the I and J districts raise their tax levies for the 2008-2009 year by four percent (consistent with the local levy growth limitation of N.J.S.A. 18A:7F-38), they will spend an average of $14,117 per pupil. D-20 ¶ 24. The time for reform is now.