New Jersey's Abbott Parties Ordered into Mediation to Settle Latest Dispute

On April 29, 2003, the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered both parties in Abbott v. Burke, New Jersey's school-funding case, to participate in mediation with state Appellate Court Judge Philip S. Carchman. The Court set a deadline of May 30 for Judge Carchman to report back on any still-unresolved issues.

The mediation order follows the April 9 announcement by the Education Law Center, attorneys for the plaintiffs, that they are asking the State Supreme Court to reject State-requested changes to Abbott V (1998), which requires "whole school reform (WSR)" in every Abbott district. On March 24, 2003, Education Commissioner William L. Librera filed a motion with the Court to relieve the state of its duty, under Abbott V, to fund WSR. The State has also targeted programs outside the classroom, such as reading tutors, school nurses, social workers, guidance counselors, and summer programs, which the State calls "supplemental" and Abbott lawyers call "essential." Cutting funding from both WSR and these other programs would cost the Abbott districts about $219 million next year.

Under the terms of Abbot V, the State is supposed to do a "comprehensive formal evaluation" of WSR, but there is no evidence that the State has done that evaluation yet. The Education Law Center, by contrast, has commissioned two studies of student achievement data from 1999-2002. These studies, by Dr. Bari Ehrlichson of Rutgers University and Dr. Robert Slavin of Johns Hopkins University, have shown achievement gains on the reading section of the fourth grade Elementary School Proficiency Assessment (ESPA) over the last four years. According to Ehrlichson, from 1999 to 2002, Abbott students made average point gains of 23.9, and non-Abbott students made gains of 14.9 points, while the state average gain was 16.8 points. Slavin's findings reveal 37.5 percentage points gained by 2002 in Abbott schools that started Success for All, a popular WSR program, in 2000, compared to a state gain of 25.2 percentage points.

A confluence of circumstances have resulted in the current clash between Abbott plaintiffs and the State. In Abbott V, the Court approved the State's own proposals for WSR and supplemental programs, to improve achievement in the Abbott districts. The State must also provide funding for universal preschool in the Abbott districts and enough state support to bring per-pupil funding to parity with the average in the 110 successful suburban districts. But New Jersey currently faces a budget shortfall of about $5 billion in its $24 billion annual budget. At least some of the over $200 million that the State would save by not paying for supplemental programs will go to help pay Court-mandated sums for parity ($193 million) and preschool ($16 million).

Prepared April 30, 2003