Gov. Christie has recently proposed the consideration of a constitutional amendment that would abolish 45 years of New Jersey Supreme Court Thorough and Efficient Clause jurisprudence by requiring equal state funding for all school districts. Instead of the long-standing precedent that requires the state to provide more funding for the poorest districts so that our present constitutional requirement of a “thorough and efficient education” can be met even in the most impoverished places, the governor would “equalize” state aid to all districts—for those with the highest property tax base and those with the lowest. Our strong condemnation of this proposal is informed by our state’s and this governor’s history of failing to provide the resources necessary to meet the constitutionally required educational needs of our urban poor and our Supreme Court’s decades-long efforts to correct those failures.

Article VIII, section IV, paragraph 1 of the 1947 New Jersey Constitution requires the Legislature to “provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public school for all children in the state between the ages of 5 and 18 years old.” From 1947 until Feb. 13, 1970, when the first Robinson v. Cahill lawsuit was filed, and for more than two decades thereafter, the state and the suburban-dominated Legislature ignored that constitutional mandate and turned their backs on the children of the urban poor.

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