Court mandates at least $1.93B in extra state aid to NYC schools Tuesday, November 21, 2006 • BY MARK JOHNSON • Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. -- New York's highest court yesterday ordered the state to pay at least $1.93 billion more each year to provide "a sound, basic education" to New York City school students. That's billions less than advocates sought in a landmark lawsuit launched more than a decade ago. Gov. George Pataki's blue-ribbon education reform commission said $1.93 billion was the minimum needed to improve the schools and settle a 1993 lawsuit filed by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity. Pataki later proposed boosting spending by $4.7 billion annually, but the administration argued that decisions on how to spend public money are the responsibility of the executive and legislative branches, not the courts. CFE lawyers asked the court to intervene because lawmakers have failed to address the problem on their own. The state Court of Appeals, in a 4-2 decision, set the minimum to be spent, but said the Legislature should be allowed to determine the final total. Joseph Wayland, a lawyer for the CFE, said he was pleased with the court's decision, even though the funding was less than the group wanted. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the governor-elect, argued the case for the Pataki administration. During the campaign for governor, Spitzer said he expected the state would have to pay $4 billion to $6 billion a year more to satisfy the CFE judgment. And he said the state would have to pay more -- probably more than $1 billion -- to correct the same problems with inadequate resources and building space in other high-need school districts statewide. Spitzer, a Democrat, said he will call for a multiyear plan to spend significantly more than the court-ordered amount as part of his first budget proposal in February. New Jersey's Supreme Court has gone further than New York's top court in mandating state aid for urban schools. In a series of decisions in the decades-old Abbott vs. Burke case, it has held that the state must ensure its poorest school districts have as much money to spend on pupils' education as its richest districts, and fund additional programs like preschool and social services. Last year New Jersey spent $4.24 billion on aid to the 31 mostly urban districts covered by the Abbott rulings, while the state's remaining 585 districts shared $3.12 billion. © 2006 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with permission.