Opinion ID: 1562623
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: A. SFRA Development Process

Text: The State's affidavit submissions go into great detail about the process through which it developed the new funding formula embodied in SFRA. We begin, therefore, by summarizing the State's description of that process and the formula it produced. The State's efforts began in 2003. The State Department of Education (DOE), in conjunction with a consulting firm, Augenblick, Palaich and Associates (APA), decided to use a professionally recognized methodology, known as the Professional Judgment Panel (PJP) approach, in order to develop a new school funding formula. [2] Pursuant to that method, one identifies desired performance standards, then develops prototypical model districts, and finally employs panels of experts to determine the resources needed to reach the selected performance standards in those districts. The DOE's use of the PJP methodology began with a determination that its performance standards would be the Core Curriculum Content Standards (CCCS), which were deemed in Abbott IV, supra, to be a reasonable definition of a constitutionally sufficient, thorough and efficient education. 149 N.J. at 168, 693 A. 2d 417. The CCCS's mandated standards embrace nine subject areas, see N.J.A.C. 6A:8-1.1, which must be reviewed and updated by the State Board of Education every five years. See L. 2007, c. 260, § 4. According to the State, to develop prototypical model schools and districts, DOE's consulting firm used data from each district in the State to generate six model districts, which assertedly conform to the demographics of New Jersey school districts. The characteristics reflected in the district models include size, grade span, and percentages of at-risk, Limited English Proficiency (LEP), and special education students. The DOE next turned to the identification of educational resources needed to meet the CCCS in the six prototype districts. To that end, DOE convened three panels of experts. The first group was comprised of educators within the DOE. That panel made the initial resource recommendations, which became the starting points for the work of the later groups. Panel members were instructed to identify necessary resources and not to be overly constrained by concerns about cost, but they also were counseled not to design their dream school. The experts comprising the next round of panelists were selected by education-stakeholder groups, and included an ELC representative and representatives from Abbott districts. That panel reviewed and modified the resources identified in the work of the first-round panel. Their work product was adjusted in turn by a third panel of eight district-level administrators, including two superintendents and one business administrator from Abbott districts. The process yielded a set of necessary resources for an elementary, middle, and high school for each model district and included recommendations that were detailed enough to include, for example, specialty teachers for the arts and additional personnel and aides for at-risk or LEP students, as well as summer school and after-school programs for schools having certain percentages of at-risk and LEP students. The final step involved identifying a base per-pupil amount for general education and similar, identified per-pupil costs that would reflect the services necessary for students having special needs. DOE applied actual-cost data from 2004-2005 to the resources identified as needed by the panels. Salary statistics from data on file with the DOE and the Department of Labor also were used. Applying those costs to the different district and school models, DOE's consultant extracted formulas for estimating the costs needed to achieve the CCCS standards in all districts in the State. Those findings, and the process used to develop them, were set forth in a December 2006 Report on the Cost of Education (Report). DOE held public hearings, inviting public comment on the Report. [3] That input convinced the DOE to publish a January 2007 Addendum to the Report, updating cost figures with 2005-2006 data. Also during the public comment time period, DOE retained three experts to review the findings in the report. In sum, they produced a report that recommended the following changes: allocate more resources for professional development; expand the definition of at-risk to include students eligible for a reduced-price lunch; use mean, instead of median, salary data; undertake additional research into the cost of substitute pay and employee benefits; employ a newer geographic cost adjustment; and simplify the formula by combining the base amounts for moderate, large, and very large districts. [4] Armed with those additional recommendations, DOE began finalizing a funding formula. It convened another panel of experts: one versed in systemic reform and evidence-based practices; one whose background was in teacher retention and early childhood; and the third having expertise in educational finance. Their recommendations, together with the public comments, the previous experts' report, and additional stakeholder meetings held between April and December 2007, helped to finalize a new funding formula.