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P.O. Box 909 ● Trenton, NJ 08605-0909 ● Phone: 609.695.7600 ● Fax: 609.695.0413 ● Web: www.njsba.org/PI |
NEWS RELEASE CONTACT: Frank Belluscio (fbelluscio@njsba.org) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NJSBA's School Leader Features Exclusive Excerpt from New Book on Funding Litigation Trenton, December 6, 2007 - More than a quarter century ago, Raymond Abbott was a sixth grader in the city of Camden. But even today, his name is one that every school official in New Jersey knows. By alphabetical happenstance, his was the first of the plaintiffs’ names to appear on the landmark Abbott v. Burke lawsuit, which has dominated school funding in New Jersey since 1990. The upcoming issue of the New Jersey School Boards Association's School Leader magazine features an exclusive excerpt from a new book, "Other People's Children: The Battle for Justice and Equality in New Jersey's Schools," by Deborah Yaffe. The book offers an in-depth look at New Jersey school funding litigation, beginning with Robinson v. Cahill, filed in 1970, and Abbott v. Burke in 1981. Yaffe also examines the decades-long process of implementing the Abbott decision. "In light of New Jersey's current school-funding debate, this excerpt can provide insight, history and a point of reference on the situation that prompted school funding litigation more than a generation ago," said Marie S. Bilik, executive director of the New Jersey School Boards Association, which publishes School Leader. The excerpt in the November/December issue of School Leader focuses on the lives of two families whose children served as plaintiffs in the lawsuits: Raymond Abbott, and Liana Diaz, a Jersey City fifth grader. A second excerpt, scheduled for publication in the magazine's January-February issue, will focus on the court hearings. In addition, the January/February School Leader, which will highlight school funding, will also include an article about the impact of state funding policy on middle-income communities. Deborah Yaffe has worked as a reporter for the Asbury Park Press, the Jersey Journal, the Recorder of San Francisco, and the Gannett Statehouse bureau in Trenton. "I had been covering education for a couple of different New Jersey newspapers, and the Abbott case kept coming back again and again," said Yaffe. "As I was trying to understand what the Abbott litigation was all about, I thought that somebody should write a book about this case." She explained the most compelling part of her research involved tracking down and interviewing the children who were the original plaintiffs in the case. "Many of them had such difficult lives and have done so well with so much less than many others, " she said. "I realized that New Jersey hadn't heard their stories." The topic also has significance beyond this state's borders. "It is generally acknowledged that New Jersey has one of the oldest school finance lawsuits in the country, and we have had remedies ordered by the court that are way beyond what most other states have had," said Yaffe. "We’re a society that believes in equal opportunity and traditionally the public schools are the engine of equal opportunity. The New Jersey cases are symbolic of how we wrestle with the questions of how to provide a 'thorough and efficient' education for the poor." The book will be published this month by Rivergate Books, an imprint of Rutgers University Press. The November/December issue of School Leader also features an interview with Marie S. Bilik, NJSBA's new executive director, as well as a report on the state of arts education in New Jersey schools.
To obtain a copy of the November/December issue of School Leader, call the NJSBA Communications Department at (609) 278-5209.
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