New Jersey takes school funding dispute back to court
NEW YORK, Sept 15 (Reuters) - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said on Thursday he seeks to reopen a 30-year-old court battle over how much state aid to provide poorer school districts.
In a filing to the New Jersey Supreme Court, the state sought permission for the education department to bypass laws and collective bargaining agreements as it sees fit.
It is an effort to clear what Christie said in a statement were "statutory and contractual impediments" that interfere with New Jersey's public school system.
"We've tried it for 30 years. What we know now is, more money alone does not translate into a better education," Christie said. "Better teaching methods, more instruction time and improved educational programs make the difference."
Since June, Christie, a close ally of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, has been pushing for an overhaul of the state's education funding formula to provide all public school districts with a flat rate of $6,599 per student, an effort aimed at reducing the state's high property taxes.
In a case called Abbott v. Burke, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in 1985 that the schooling received by students in poor districts was so bad it failed to meet the state's constitutional mandate to provide a sound education.
A second ruling in 1990 forced the state to fund so-called Abbott districts on par with wealthier ones.
New Jersey has spent nearly $100 billion on those 31 districts since 1985, Christie's statement said, even as students in the districts "have lower graduation rates, and many of their graduates require costly remedial courses before attending college."
Steven Fulop, mayor of Jersey City, which is an Abbott district, said in a statement that Christie's funding plan is unconstitutional and "an attack on urban communities in the poorest of school districts." (Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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