Court revives school aid suit
Kingston district among plaintiffs
ALBANY, N.Y. » A state appellate court has reinstated a lawsuit challenging as inadequate and illegal state funding to eight small-city school districts, including Kingston.
The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, Third Department, issued a decision Thursday that reversed a trial judge’s ruling that had dismissed the case.
The other school districts pressing the case, which was initiated in 2008, are Poughkeepsie, Newburgh, Port Jervis, Mount Vernon, Utica, Jamestown and Niagara Falls.
The lawsuit accuses the state of reneging on funding promises made after a Court of Appeals ruling in 2007 required the state to increase funding for New York City schools. After the ruling in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, the state reformed its statewide funding formula, but it hasn’t fully funded the new system while facing budget shortfalls.
The appellate court on Thursday said the trial court must examine the evidence regarding deficiencies in essential education resources (or inputs), student performance (outcomes) and whether a lack of funding is a causal factor in resource deficits and low outcomes.
The appellate judges remanded the case back to the trial court for specific findings for each of the eight districts.
Kingston school district Superintendent Paul Padalino lauded the appellate court decision.
“We are pleased with the ... decision and look forward to continuing to advocate for a permanent solution to the funding of small city school districts in court,” Padalino said in an email Friday.
State legislators and the Association of Small City School Districts have said the eight districts were shorted a combined $1.1 billion because of a freeze in “foundation aid,” which benefits students who are poor or need English-language services, and the Gap Elimination Adjustment that curtailed school funding to shore up the state budget after the economic crisis of 2008.
According to the association, the districts that went to court had to cut 1,443 teachers and staff positions post-2007, accounting for as much as 30 percent of overall employment.
The Kingston school
“We are pleased with the ... decision and look forward to continuing to advocate for a permanent solution to the funding of small city school districts in court.” — Kingston school district Superintendent Paul Padalino
district lost $80 million in funding and had to cut 158 jobs, according to the association. The Newburgh school district claimed to have been shorted $239 million during the same period, resulting in 234 staff members being laid off, while Poughkeepsie cut 92 jobs.
The appellate court said the trial court must consider a broad range of inputs necessary for a sound basic education, including not only teachers and instruments of learning, but also class size and supplemental services, such as academic intervention services, extended learning opportunities and social workers.
The decision also said the proper standard for establishing causation on remand is whether the plaintiffs showed that increased funding can provide inputs that yield better student performance, evidence the state’s own experts conceded for every district.
Greg Little, the Education Law Center’s chief trial counsel and lead counsel in this case, said Thursday’s ruling was “a great victory for the 55,000 children in the eight districts, and for children across New York state.”