Spitzer: Expect New City School Aid Above $2B; Top Court's Decision Reduces Appellate Panel's Award

Spitzer: Expect New City School Aid Above $2B; Top Court's Decision Reduces Appellate Panel's Award

By RICHARD STEIER

Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer said Nov. 20 that he will give the city school system "significant additional funding" beyond the $1.93 billion ordered by the state's highest court earlier that day in its ruling on the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case.

ELIOT SPITZER: Will go beyond award. "We must provide more funding than this constitutional minimum so that all of New York's schoolchildren have an opportunity to thrive in the 21st-Century workplace," he declared in statement.

Court Defers to State

The Court of Appeals mandated that the state spend at least as much as a commission created by Governor Pataki set in 2004 as the low-end figure needed to assure city students of a quality education. It was unwilling, however, to approach the $4.7 billion to $5.6 billion ordered by an Appellate Division panel, saying it was the province of the Governor and the Legislature to decide how far above the baseline figure the increase should be.

"The Legislative and Executive branches of government are in a far better position than the Judiciary to determine funding needs throughout the state and priorities for the allocation of the State's resources," Judge Eugene F. Pigott Jr. stated for the majority in the 4-2 decision. Judge Pigott, who was sworn in less than two months ago, cast the decisive vote in a case where all the judges in the majority were appointees of Mr. Pataki.

JUDITH S. KAYE: Questions majority's reasoning. In a biting dissent, the state's Chief Judge, Judith S. Kaye, remarked that "our trust was misplaced" three years ago when the Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and left it to the Governor and Legislature to devise an appropriate remedy.

State Study's Omission

She said a study for the state by Standard & Poor's that determined that $1.93 billion - out of a total statewide increase of $2.5 billion - was enough to provide a "sound, basic education" for city students failed to consider several factors. She pointed out that the state Board of Regents - which had recommended $4.7 billion in additional state aid and another $900 million to be provided by the city itself - found that the financial firm had not "focused on the specific circumstances of New York City schools, including an especially heavy concentration of high-needs students, very low graduation rates, large classes and a disproportionate number of schools in need of improvement ..."

RANDI WEINGARTEN: A disappointing ruling. She concluded, "Plainly, every governmental actor knew what the referees and the Appellate Division here concluded: a sound basic education will cost approximately $5 billion in additional annual expenditures."

Had Pledged $4B+

During his election campaign, Mr. Spitzer had said that he planned to give the city system more than $4 billion in additional aid annually as part of a package that would also increase spending in all state school districts. It is unclear, however, whether the Court of Appeals ruling, coupled with resistance by the Republican majority in the State Senate to providing the kind of increase that was ordered in the Appellate Division ruling, will lead the new Governor to seek some middle ground when he proposes his first budget in February. Attorneys for the CFE had sought a $5.63 billion annual boost in state school aid for the city and a $9.2-billion one-time allocation for school construction based on a study conducted jointly by American Institutes for Research and Management Analysis and Planning.

United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said that the decision "has both good and bad aspects. We cannot mask our profound disappointment that the court has significantly reduced the amount from the $4 billion to $6 billion that other courts - and even Governor Pataki - felt was necessary to give New York City's 1.1 million public school children a constitutionally required sound basic education."

Mayor: Don't Tap Us

Mayor Bloomberg's aides indicated that he would not be amenable to spending more of the city's money in order to reach the new threshold. Mr. Spitzer has indicated he believes the city should increase its school spending in tandem with the state. The formula to determine the city's share of the educational cost burden was not touched by the ruling.

"We now look forward to receiving additional funds from the state, which we will spend as carefully as we have spent our own taxpayer dollars to improve the education of each of our students," the Mayor said in a statement.

Governor Pataki, issued a statement in support of the ruling, saying that "after more than 13 years of litigation, this decision provides a clear roadmap to an appropriate conclusion to the CFE case and is a resounding affirmation of my strong belief that decisions regarding the state's finances and educational policy should continue to be made by the people's elected representatives and not the courts."

Original CFE plaintiff and now-City Council Education Committee Chairman Robert Jackson said, however, "I am profoundly distressed and disappointed. The children of New York City are crying in their hearts."

(Howard Megdal contributed to this story.)