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Once again, the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, has ruled that New York State must provide billions more in education funding to ensure that all students are provided with the opportunity for a "sound basic education." This is the latest in a long string of court decisions involving the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE).

The Court of Appeals did significantly reduce the minimum constitutional amount required from $4.7 billion to $1.93 billion. NYSUT views the minimum as a woefully insufficient response to years of chronic under-funding of public education. We will work with Governor-elect Spitzer to keep to his has pledge to resolve the CFE case by providing New York City with somewhere between $ 4 billion and $ 6 billion, and up to $8.5 billion statewide. NYSUT has consistently advocated for a statewide solution to the CFE case to ensure that all children throughout the state have an opportunity for a sound basic education. NYSUT also continues to advocate for strong accountability provisions to ensure that school districts would use the additional resources properly.

In 2003, the Court of Appeals directed the Governor and Legislature to ensure that every school in New York City has the resources necessary to provide the opportunity for a sound basic education. To comply with this directive, the Governor and the Legislature were ordered to determine the cost of providing a sound basic education in New York City and to enact appropriate funding and accountability reforms by July 30, 2004. However, the Governor and the Legislature failed to reach an agreement by the deadline.

The Governor's Zarb Commission, using a costing-out study prepared by Standards & Poor's (S&P), proposed a range of $1.93 billion to $4.69 billion in additional education funding to provide New York City students with a sound basic education.

The Court of Appeals ruled that the $1.93 billion is not an "irrational" minimum. Judge Rosenblatt joined the majority opinion, but wrote separately to "emphasize that my vote should not be construed as concluding that $1.93 billion, as adjusted, is necessarily the proper additional budgetary amount to provide New York City schools, or that $2.45 billion is the amount that should be budgeted statewide. These figures were determined by a commission designated by the State as reflecting the constitutional minimum for a sound basic education."

The following timeline details the history of the CFE case:

1999 — On October 12, 1999, the trial of CFE v. State of New York began in Manhattan Supreme Court.

2001 — On January 10, 2001, Justice Leland DeGrasse ruled that the state's funding system fails to provide New York City public school students with the opportunity for a "sound basic education."

2002 — On June 25, 2002, the Appellate Court, in a 4-1 decision, reversed Justice DeGrasse's ruling that New York State has failed in its constitutional obligation to provide New York City public school students with an opportunity for a "sound basic education." The court held that student could function productively as citizens with only an eighth grade education.

2003 — On June 26, 2003, the Court of Appeals overruled the decision from the Appellate Court and reinstated Justice DeGrasse's ruling. The Court of Appeals directed the Governor and the Legislature to enact the appropriate funding and accountability reforms by July 30, 2004.

Governor Pataki appoints a Commission on Education Reform, referred to as the Zarb Commission, to develop recommendations to respond to the Court of Appeals.

2004 — At the request of the Zarb Commission, Standards & Poor's (S&P) conducted a costing-out study to determine the additional funding needed to provide New York City students with a sound basic education.

Following a Successful Schools model and using four different options to identify successful schools, the S&P study generated a range of $1.93 billion to $4.69 billion in additional funding.

Governor Pataki introduced a Program Bill to provide the New York City School District with an additional $4.7 billion over five years.

The governor and the legislature failed to reach an agreement by the July 30, 2004 deadline. Justice DeGrasse appointed a panel of referees to make recommendations to the court. The referees' report concluded that the New York City School District should receive an additional $5.63 billion.

2005 — Justice DeGrasse confirmed the findings of the panel of referees that the New York City School District should receive an additional $5.63 billion.

The Appellate Division cited Governor Pataki's proposal to increase funding to the New York City School District and ordered the Governor and the Legislature to appropriate at least an additional $4.7 billion.

2006 — The Court of Appeals modifies the order of the Appellate Division and declares that the minimum constitutionally required funding for the New York City School District is an additional $1.93 billion and that amount should be increased based on both inflation and the latest version of the Geographic cost of Education Index (GCEI).

BKB/sh/60005

Download: Complete Bulletin. PDF File.