The AP (5/25, Santi) reports, "After New Jersey's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the state spend more on low-income school districts and Gov. Chris Christie agreed not to stand in the way, it's up to state lawmakers to figure out how to do it. The Democratic-controlled Legislature has just over five weeks to figure out how to reallocate $500 million in the state budget, knowing that the Republican governor is threatening a veto if lawmakers increase taxes to comply with the school funding ruling." The piece notes that the case stemmed from the allocation of education funding in low-income districts.
CNN (5/25, Burruss) adds that the court ruled Christie's "controversial 2011 budget to be unconstitutional. 'Today's ruling by the state Supreme Court is disappointing, but not unexpected,' Christie responded in a press conference." The court ruled that "Christie's budget fails to meet the funding requirements set forth by the School Funding Reform Act of 2008, a spending formula that guarantees financial support for all New Jersey public school districts. Particularly problematic to the court was his failure to fund the so-called Abbott school districts, 31 New Jersey districts located in poor communities that are constitutionally guaranteed adequate funding levels because of historically bad performance records."
PhillyBurbs.com (5/25, Levinsky) calls the ruling "a rebuke of the $1 billion in cuts handed down by Gov. Chris Christie and the state Legislature last year, but was well shy of the $1.7 billion in additional state aid sought for all school districts. Instead, the court decided that the additional money should be given solely to the state's 31 poorest districts, also known as Abbott districts, which previously have been awarded extra funding to ensure their large populations of disadvantaged students get a quality education."
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