The parents of 12 New Jersey students have filed a class action lawsuit seeking the right to transfer their children to public or private schools with better academic performance results than their current schools, using their children’s per pupil state funding. The children now attend schools deemed “in need of improvement” under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Test Case The parents in the national test case, Crawford v. Davy, filed suit on July 13 in Superior Court in Newark against the New Jersey State Board of Education, Education Commissioner Lucille Davy and other state officials, as well as 25 local school boards.

The plaintiffs in Crawford represent more than 60,000 students, who attend 95 schools in 25 New Jersey school districts. They argue that the performance of these students on the state’s major standardized tests shows that New Jersey is failing to provide all students with a “thorough and efficient education” as mandated by the state constitution.

Remedy Sought Support for the parents has come from the Black Ministers’ Council and the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey, as well as from Excellent Education for Everyone, a statewide non-profit group that advocates parental choice and which receives funding from nationwide organizations that support school vouchers.

The suit seeks to end school assignments that are based on students’ residence. Instead, it calls for providing families with the share of public money that is used for their children’s education, so that they could spend it at another public school or a private school.

NJSBA is reviewing the case. Association policy opposes the use of public funds for non-public schools.