Court Rules $1.93 Billion For City Schools

The state must increase annual funding to New York City public schools by $1.93 billion, a ruling from the New York State Court of Appeals ordered Monday.

The court-ordered funding is a marked decrease from the $4.7 billion ordered by the courts in the last appeal of the 13-year case between the state and the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, a coalition of parents, students, teachers, and political leaders.

In the last appeal, the court took the recommendations of court-appointed referees who suggested that New York City schools needed $4.7 billion more in funding, but Monday's majority opinion, written by Justice Eugene Pigott, stated: "The State, not Supreme Court, was ordered to ascertain the cost of a sound basic education in New York City," and so endorsed the state's figure of $1.93 billion.

The ruling "validates the State's strong commitment to education through record school aid increases and the $9.4 billion capital commitment made just this year," Governor George Pataki said in a statement.

The latest ruling also stated that the smaller figure is only the new "minimum" amount required to provide New York City schoolchildren with a constitutionally guaranteed "sound basic education," and that the legislature has the power to allocate more.

Leaders and counsel for the Campaign for Fiscal Equity said $1.93 billion was not enough to alleviate the "cash starved" system in need of smaller class sizes, higher graduation rates, and universal pre-kindergarten.

"We cannot prepare our children for college and the 21st century job market for the bargain basement price of $2 billion," Billy Easton, executive director of the Alliance for Quality Education, said. "If the dollar figure were limited, then tough choices would have to be made about which of those things [universal pre-kindergarten, smaller class sizes, etc.] were going to happen."

CFE said the amount of school funding calculated by the state falls short of Governor George Pataki's 2004 estimate of more than $4.7 billion per year, but added they are not discouraged by the decrease. While the Republican state senate majority has also been a major player in stalling the passage of CFE legislation, Michael Rebell, counsel for CFE, said Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer has made CFE funding "a centerpiece of his agenda."

In a statement, Randi Weingarten, President of the United Federation of Teachers, agreed: "We expect legislative leaders to act quickly to carry this out."