Chris Christie's School Budget Cuts Left State Unable To Meet Educational Obligations: Judge

A New Jersey judge ruled on Tuesday that Governor Chris Christie's nearly $1 billion in budget cuts to schools last year left the state unable to meet its educational obligations to more than one million children, the Star-Ledger reports.

The AP reports:

In a report issued Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Peter Doyne found that Christie's cuts hit high-risk districts the hardest.
...
Last year, Christie cut state funding for all districts, including the needy ones, saying the state government couldn't balance its budget otherwise.

According to the Star-Ledger, Doyne wrote in an opinion on the case, "Despite spending levels that meet or exceed virtually every state in the country, and that saw a significant increase in spending levels from 2000 to 2008, our 'at risk' children are now moving further from proficiency."

Bloomberg reports:

Doyne said his job as a special master was to determine whether current spending levels permit school districts to meet their requirement of providing a "thorough and efficient" education to children.

"The difficulty in addressing New Jersey's fiscal crisis and its constitutionally mandated obligation to educate our children requires an exquisite balance not easily attained," wrote Doyne, according to the Star-Ledger. "Something need be done to equitably address these competing imperatives. That answer, though, is beyond the purview of this report. For the limited question posed to the Master, it is clear the State has failed to carry its burden."

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The state Supreme Court has yet to issue a ruling on the lawsuit, which could have major implications on Christie's next $29.4 billion budget, which he proposed last month and would take effect July 1 if passed by the Legislature. The state and the Education Law Center, which filed the complaint, will debate the special master's report before the court.

Reuters reports:

The state Supreme Court asked Doyne to act as a special master to study the issue. It was not yet clear what the higher court intends to do with the report, although responses from parties involved in it are due in mid-April and any move by the Supreme Court could affect the state's next budget.

According to Reuters, Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak said in statement, "The Supreme Court should at last abandon the failed assumption of the last three decades that more money equals better education, and stop treating our state's fiscal condition as an inconvenient afterthought."

Comments

[antoniob]

07:58 PM on 04/26/2011

Hey New Jersey: let's remember that the $1B "cut" in education spending came because Corzine blew the $1B in federal dollars given to him in his re-election year. NJ didn't have that money when Christie was elected.

[jfw52]

03:35 PM on 04/14/2011

Christie is the worst thing to happen to NJ in a long time. He was one of the GOP attorneys general who launched politically motivated investigations of Dem Senate candidates in 2008 at Karl Rove's direction, so GOP candidates could claim their opponents were under investigation. Right after the election, the investigations were quietly dropped, as with Senator Menedez.

He blames public employees as a whole for transgressions of a few - mostly bureaucrats holding 2 or more part-time jobs to double dip on pensions. There are many wealthy people in NJ, but Christie asks nothing from them.

He comes from the richest town in NJ where most families can afford private schools, and is weakening the public school system. Most towns in NJ do a great job affordably educating students at a cost under the state average. Meanwhile, Christie lost $400 million in federal school aid due to errors in the application, then lied by blaming his education commissioner (proven by videotape of the federal hearing.) He slashed funding to the vast majority of districts in the state, instead of reforming the worst ones, which has raised property taxes a lot. Music and performing arts programs are being cut. Many schools now make athletes pay to play.

From the start, Christie and his minions have attacked and mocked public employ unions and any other political adversary. He has acted like a schoolyard bully. That's no way to create a political environment to effectively solve long-term problems.

[texfly]

11:32 AM on 03/25/2011

New Jersey has many very small school districts with considerable affluence. Those districts are funded exclusively by local taxes and controlled locally. But they pay a Robin Hood tax to the state to suuplement the poorer districts such as larger inner city schools.

My district, K-12 had 1800 students TOTAL, but virtually all of our taxes went to it and to Robin Hood. We never liked Robin Hood, but we all recognized the need for a top notch education, so we paid. To see Christie suggesting he close his budget gap, using those Robin Hood funds is deplorable and very short sighted. It is criminal that kids of limited means are going to be deprived of a better education, because he has to meet other obligations. Sounds like Robin Hood has met up with Tony Soprano.

[allisonisa39e]

06:30 AM on 03/25/2011

Can't the State just borrow more money and give it to the school system

[Pastori Balele]

01:37 PM on 03/24/2011

Chris and TEA Party presidential candidates are wasting time and money trying to capture the White House. GOP and conservatives killed themselves this year. Chris and othernewly elected GOP governors came too hard on American people. It was TEA Party that energized the nation to vote republican in 2009 elections. Labor Union Party is replacing TEA Party now and in 2012. In 2012 any candidate who is pro-union party will be elected. American People are angry with and fear republicans. Even some TEA Party and Republican members, some government employees, have now switched positions and are now supporting democrats. TEA Party leaders are hiding because republicans are abusing American people this year. In fact TEA Party and GOP are now fighting who should lead. Workers in private sector are also scared that republicans will attack their rights and unions. They see slavery coming back. Here if funny thing- I met TEA Partiers at the demonstration in Madison. Some were crying when they saw me. They remembered I had warned them before the elections not to vote republican. They now regret. The whole country is now waiting 2012 to revenge against republicans. No republican will be elected as state or federal senator, congress or president in the near future. Republicans are in a "black hole"- they cannot get out. GOP WH aspirants will be wasting their money and time. We welcome re-electing democrats and President Obama in 2012.

[marilyn 63]

12:56 AM on 03/25/2011

what a really good informative post. and they should have listened .they really voted against their best interest. and your post i write the way they can do that is by voting everything Democratic. i know they are not perfect but they do basically work for the little guy.it was a shame Boehner who had done nothing but vote NO!! on everything becoming speaker and Nancy and the house Democrats were working hard i think she had done 400 bills sent to the senate to die because the Republicans voted NO for everything. for 2012 every one should put them out they don't deserve to be reelected they work for the Koch brothers. fan and fav

[allisonisa39e]

06:32 AM on 03/25/2011

It sounds really good, then we can borrow more money so that there does not have to be any budget cuts.

[Pastori Balele]

10:15 AM on 03/25/2011

GOP governors want to kill education in this country. Then we will import teachers and medical professionals from Japan, England, Kenya, Tanzania, Holland, China, German etc. Of course GOP governors and the rich will send their kids to private colleges in England. What a double standard? Survival of the fittest-kill education in US. No! American people will not allow that in 2012. All GOP governors and law makers will be voted out in 2012. Let's re-elect President Obama.

[prettyfnliberal]

06:22 PM on 03/23/2011

LOOK AT THIS HERP, DERPIN ALL OVER THE PLACE

[CivilDebate10]

05:21 PM on 03/23/2011

Just another example of a judge thinking he is a king.

[MikeWebster]

08:59 PM on 03/23/2011

You mean applying the law without favour or prejudice.

[CivilDebate10]

10:26 PM on 03/23/2011

What "law"? All the judge did is interject his opinion. The funding was set at 2008 levels. Inflation has been almost zero. Plus, since when is it up to judges to set spending levels? If this decision stands, there is nothing a judge will not be able to legislate. Imagine, if this was on the federal level, that a judge said that we need to increase defense spending because there is an obligation to defend the country and, in the judges opinion, current defense spending levels are inadequate.

[jfw52]

02:42 PM on 04/14/2011

Sort of like Christie has been doing for the last year and a half.

[CivilDebate10]

05:21 PM on 03/23/2011

It is so sad to see the greedy statists think cry and cry that they need more and more money. Their superficial thinking is getting old - and now it is destructive. They hold the simplistic view that "more money" solves everything. There is very little coorelation between amount of money spent and quality in education. FACT: DC spends the MOST money per pupil and is almost last place. South Dakota spends the LEAST money per pupil and is in the top 10.

[eceresa]

08:57 PM on 03/23/2011

And of course, the two cases are entirely comparable, right? It's not like DC has a harder job, teaching a higher percentage of kids in poverty. It can't be that when you've got more to do, it takes more money to do it, right?

More money doesn't solve everything. But without enough money, you're not going to solve anything.

[allisonisa39e]

06:36 AM on 03/25/2011

So if we give education twice or three times as much will we get students that can read, write and do simple math problems by the time they get out of High School.

[MikeWebster]

09:32 PM on 03/23/2011

There certainly needs to be a minimum spent. Obviously how that money is spent, and other factors to do with the population demographics are also important.

[llyd wlsh]

03:28 PM on 03/23/2011

the ultimate goal is to do away with he states obligation to educate it's children, issue vouchers and pr!vatize. all repu6e/b@g­gers want to wash thier hands of resposibil­ity and turn everything over to their friends in the private sector. take our tax dollars and funnel it to private businesses, forcing us to support businesses we have no control over. it's past time to stop the pillaging of america by these thieves.

this push goes way beyond the education system and is the repu6e/b@gger agenda for all gov't. functions

[teacher39years]

04:45 PM on 03/23/2011

Veru true.

[RadiGal]

04:52 PM on 03/23/2011

That's exactly what is happening. These greedy sociopaths view education as an untapped market, ripe for profit, rather than the social service that it is. Education is one of the most important elements of a healthy society. The last thing we need is for our educational system to be susceptible to the unpredictable mood swings of the market and the demands of shareholders who always require increasing returns on their investments (where do people think that money comes from, anyway?)

[LouiseM]

09:35 PM on 03/23/2011

It's a *captive* market, too - since it's financed by tax dollars and is required by all state constitutions.

Of course, a state could always vote to do away with the educational requirements altogether, by changing its Constitution. Don't bet it won't occur in some of these states with more elderly than children.

[allisonisa39e]

05:38 AM on 03/24/2011

The voters do want something in exchange for their money (educated children) . The educational levels don't seem to show that they are getting their moneys worth.

[A Wright]

02:55 PM on 03/23/2011

Legality has never been an issue for Republican executives. Their obligation to their shareholders/contributors overrides any impetus to follow the law.

[llyd wlsh]

03:23 PM on 03/23/2011

repu6e/b@gger quote

"we don' need no stinkin' laws

[Mattcat25]

02:29 PM on 03/23/2011

Republicans use and abuse Government only to make themselves wealthy, no matter what the cost and effect is to the American People.

[themanchild27]

02:22 PM on 03/23/2011

lets hope pa gets its turn soon being in the 10th grade at a public school the states budget cuts are already effecting the school there are no late busses so if you dont have a ride home from any extracurricular activities you cant partiscipate theres a pronter in the computer lab that is falling appart and there are teachers who dont deserve to be teaching education should be in our top 3 priorities not some worthless crap going on in libya the young people of america are suffering and our govt is letting it happen

[allisonisa39e]

05:43 AM on 03/24/2011

The students should have literate teachers also. I do agree with you about wasting money in another country. They need to work out their own solutions.

[CitizenZoe]

02:19 PM on 03/23/2011

I went to a school board meeting last night to observe how they handle over 60 concerned citizens. The issues - gutting music/ art/ library/ band, laying off teachers, increasing classroom size... The result - Students lose, Corporate America wins. Overall result - middle class disintegrates.

I'd say at least they can cheer for their favorite highschool sport, but they can't afford to put lights in their run down stadium.

Is it time for the revolution yet, or do we have to reach a lower standard of intelligence so the nobles can beat us?

[allisonisa39e]

05:46 AM on 03/24/2011

Maybe the students should first be taught to read, write and do math.
Any community interest in fixing up the stadium or are you waiting for Big Brother ???

[CitizenZoe]

12:59 PM on 03/24/2011

They ARE being taught to do those things. I guess that's good enough, right? Who cares about opportunities to explore your own talents and creativity, let alone learn to advocate for how your tax monies get spent. You act like you have a clue what goes on in our education system and state things like "throwing money" is a waste. You're correct - when it goes to admin pay raises, tinting 300 buses, bussing kids to any school they choice in the district (even if it's at the far side of the district)...

Bottomline chickie, our kids are not benefitting from the funding because it is disproportionately distributed. I thought it was pretty American to protest that? I guess you take the Palin logic - spout off and have someone relay the facts later because you just have to be heard. Nice job, babe!

[tparte]

02:17 PM on 03/23/2011

Reganomics still destroying America

[GrumpyinAZ]

10:20 PM on 03/23/2011

I feel trickled on, don't you?

[marilyn 63]

01:09 AM on 03/25/2011

i think Regan had Alzheimer's toward the end of his presidency and they still let him make insane proposals. i guess it was no different when he didn't have it.

[tparte]

02:15 PM on 03/23/2011

Burrito anybody?

[lifepanels]

02:27 PM on 03/23/2011

Taco! Who's paying?

[mel26]

03:44 PM on 03/23/2011

i.e., get out while you can.

[allisonisa39e]

05:48 AM on 03/24/2011

That sounds like waste it if you don't need it before it is used to handle something that needs handling but does not have money allocated.