ck to the late 1800s in New Jersey. For it was in 1875 that the New Jersey 1844 Constitution was amended to “include the guarantee of a ‘thorough and efficient’ education for all of the state’s children” (Education, 2000, 1). Funding for the majority of New Jersey’s educational efforts was state provided. Property taxes and township taxes supplemented the state funding and were equally distributed to school districts on a per-pupil basis.
Fast-forwarding to 1970, in another education oriented lawsuit known as Robinson v. Cahill, the plaintiffs charged that “the state’s system for funding schools discriminates against poorer districts and creates disparities in education” (History, 2000, 1). In between 1970 and 1975, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that relying on property taxes for school funding represented discrimination against poor school districts. In 1975, this perspective was responsible for the Public School Education Act, Chapter 212, which created a new method of public school finance. Under this Act, a new formula for financing was to be devised but the inability of the Legislature to do so caused an eight day shutdown of the schools in 1976. By 1981, Abbott v. Burke had been filed, “charging that disparities between wealthy and poor districts had actually increased under Chapter 212” (History, 2000, 1).
It would take another seven years before a judge rules that the education funding system in New Jersey was unconstitutional because it discriminated against the poorer districts. In 1989, Saul Cooperman, the Education Commissioner, rejected the judge’s d
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