Abbott Status Denied to Rural Districts

Abbott Status Denied to Rural Districts

The Appellate Division of Superior Court on March 14 denied an appeal from eight rural school districts seeking Abbott-like status.

In Bacon, et. al. v. New Jersey State Department of Education, the court was not convinced that the ultimate remedy of Abbott status for the eight districts was constitutionally needed at this time.

The “Bacon” districts—eight poor, mostly rural districts—have been seeking the same financial resources of parity funding, facilities funding and universal preschool that are provided to the Abbott districts. The Bacon districts had appealed a January 2006 State Board of Education decision, which found that the state’s former school-funding system, CEIFA, had failed to ensure that the students in the Bacon districts would receive a “thorough and efficient” education, as guaranteed in the state constitution. While the State Board did not grant Abbott status to the Bacon districts, it did, among other remedies, direct the New Jersey Department of Education to perform a needs assessment to identify the particular educational requirements of the Bacon districts’ students.

The Bacon districts had argued to the Appellate Division that the only proper remedy for the educational deficiencies was to grant them Abbott-like status. But in last week’s ruling, the court instead directed the Commissioner of Education to comply with the State Board’s 2006 decision to perform the needs assessment—to be completed in six months. The court also directed the commissioner to then determine whether the state’s new school-funding formula, the School Funding Reform Act of 2008, will provide students in the Bacon districts with the fiscal resources to deliver a thorough and efficient education.

The court further directed the Department of Education to give the Bacon districts an opportunity to be heard during the needs assessment and the evaluation of the funding formula’s remedial measures.