NEWARK, N.J. – Today, the Seton Hall University School of Law Center for Social Justice filed a class action lawsuit against the State of New Jersey on behalf of all students attending public charter schools in Newark. The lawsuit challenges the stark disparity in annual state funding between students in Newark’s public charter schools and its traditional public schools.

Specifically, the lawsuit claims that the state provides students in Newark public charter schools with less than 40 percent of the per-pupil funding provided students in traditional public schools, and excludes entirely children attending public charter schools from the over $1.5 billion, or over $37,000 per pupil, in approved funding for school facilities in Newark.

Public charter schools are public schools operating under charters granted by the New Jersey Department of Education. Most of the state’s public charter schools are located in poorer urban districts. These schools offer greater accountability and more innovative teaching methods to parents who seek an alternative to their district’s traditional public schools, according to Professor Shavar Jeffries of the Center for Social Justice, lead counsel on the class action lawsuit. While charter schools are funded by the state, the funding is at a rate drastically lower than the traditional public schools within the same municipality, noted Jeffries.

In Abbott v. Burke, the New Jersey Supreme Court held that concentrated poverty presented unique challenges to the education of urban children, and that the state, therefore, must guarantee funding and facilities sufficient to meet these extraordinary needs. The lawsuit charges that even though children in Newark public charter schools face the same urban educational challenges of children in traditional public schools, the state categorically denies public charter school students access to any Abbott funding and school construction funding. As a result, students attending traditional public schools in Newark are provided with $15,658 in per-pupil educational funding, while students attending Newark public charter schools receive merely $5,969 per-pupil. “On top of this disparity of $9,607 per pupil, the state also denies students in Newark public charter schools access to the over $1.5 billion in school construction aid, or over $37,000 per pupil, made available to Newark’s traditional public schools,” said Jeffries.

“The New Jersey Supreme Court has repeatedly held that students who reside in poorer urban school districts have unique educational needs and that extraordinary state funding is necessary to meet these needs,” added Jeffries. “Despite this clear mandate, the state denies thousands of Newark’s students almost ten thousand dollars in educational funding per pupil, not to mention almost $40,000 in per-pupil facilities aid. Because these children face the same urban challenges of children in traditional schools, this stark disparity cannot be constitutionally justified. ”

Newark’s 15-to-6 disparity exceeds even the national trend. According to a recent study published by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, charter school students in the 17 states studied receive 22 percent less in educational funding than their peers in the traditional public schools that surround them. The disparity in Newark, where public charter school students receive 60 percent less, is, thus, almost three times this national average. While the lawsuit specifically focuses on Newark public charter schools, Jeffries noted that a favorable court ruling would likely affect the funding of all New Jersey charter schools in Abbott districts — statewide, such schools are provided a small fraction of the funding available to traditional public schools.

The lawsuit is in addition to a lawsuit filed by the Center of Social Justice late last month on behalf of parents with children in failing schools in Newark. That lawsuit charges that those parents had not been adequately informed of their child’s right to free tutoring and the right to transfer out of a failing school as provided under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Today’s lawsuit filed in Essex County Court in Newark seeks a declaration that the 15-to-6 funding disparity violates the right of public charter school students to equal protection of the laws under the New Jersey Constitution. The plaintiffs are seeking an injunction ordering the state to design a funding system responsive to the urban educational challenges faced by children attending public charter schools in Abbott districts like Newark.

In addition to Jeffries, attorneys on the case include Scott Michelman, and third-year law students Mireille Bahri, Jason Haller, Greg Ricciardi and Kyle Rosenkrans, also of the Seton Hall Law School Center for Social Justice.

A copy of the complaint can be found on the Seton Hall Law School website at http://law.shu.edu/administration/public_relations/press_releases
/2006/charter_complaint_12_12_06.pdf.



The only private law school in New Jersey, Seton Hall University School of Law was founded in 1951, and is located in the city of Newark. Seton Hall Law School offers both day and evening programs leading to the Juris Doctor (J.D.), Master of Laws (LL.M.) and Master of Science in Jurisprudence (M.S.J.) degrees. For more information on Seton Hall Law School, visit law.shu.edu.