Paterson Education Fund deplores the NJ Supreme Court decision to replace the Abbott remedies with the School Funding Reform Act [SFRA].

 “Paterson children lost today, and for the foreseeable future,” said Irene Sterling, President of the Paterson Education Fund, as the NJ Supreme Court gutted the Abbott remedies in favor of the  School Funding Reform Act [SFRA].

As a consequence:
•         Paterson schools will be flat funded for the next two years.
•         Further program cuts for support services and extended learning opportunities will be required to cover the costs of rising salaries and other fixed costs.

•         Paterson, a municipally overburdened community with one of the highest foreclosure rates in the state, will be required to raise additional property taxes that replace state education dollars and will not be able to expand learning opportunities.

“Our goal is to raise Paterson’s graduation rate to the state average. Currently, Paterson graduates only about 60% of its children. Today’s decision makes that goal infinitely more difficult to achieve,” said Sterling. “Every child we fail to graduate becomes a lifelong burden on the rest of us. We will end up paying for a lifetime of charity care, jobless benefits and in the worst case, prison.”

PEF welcomes the Court’s clear statements in the opinion that the Court understands that the having the SFRA meet constitutional standards does not assure adequate educational outcomes.  The clear warning to the Executive and Legislative branches that the SFRA must be funded to ensure a “thorough and efficient education” is welcome and necessary.