School finance court cases have proceeded one or more times in all but two states. Plaintiffs ask the courts to rule that the existing funding formula is unconstitutional under state constitutions, and the defendants call for continuation of the existing finance formula. By compiling and analyzing the universe of such cases, we can accurately…

In the 2009 "Abbott v. Burke XX" decision, the New Jersey Supreme Court approved the SFRA formula as a replacement for the previously Court-ordered "parity" and "supplemental funding" remedies for the longstanding violation of the constitutional right to a thorough and efficient education of students in 31 urban, or…

New Jersey's continued commitment to preschool is in line with a growing body of research that shows an investment in such programs produces both short-term and long-term gains for children, their families and their communities. In fact, a series of studies from the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) in 2007 and 2009 found…

Education finance policy in New Jersey has been shaped by over 30 years of school finance litigation. Through its decisions in "Robinson v. Cahill" (1973-1976) and "Abbott v. Burke" (1985-2005), the justices of New Jersey's supreme court have defined the state's constitutional guarantee of a "thorough and efficient"…

In addition to setting high standards for student performance, educational policies must consider what resources are essential to provide an adequate educational program to meet all students' learning needs. Policy makers also want to ensure that educators make efficient use of available resources. In this exploration of school finance policy, we…