An economic, socio-demographic, and political study of school funding: The case of New Jersey

Repeated challenges to New Jersey's school funding inequities resulted in serial litigation during three school finance policy periods over 27 years. The most recent court challenge by litigants representing students in poor urban school districts ended on May 14, 1997, with a State Supreme Court decision in favor of urban special needs districts (Abbott by Abbott v. Burke, 1997).; The purpose of this study is to determine whether New Jersey's school funding policy needs to be reconsidered in light of the state's inability to solve school funding inequities. To accomplish the objective of policy evaluation, a longitudinal examination of socio-demographic, economic, political, and school finance equity indicators was completed to ascertain what patterns and trends drove and affected school funding policy. The study tracked a variety of indicators in New Jersey's 40 urban and suburban state legislative districts from 1980 through the mid-1990s. Data analysis enhanced by the use of computer-created digitized maps facilitated the distribution of data, graphically, within legislative district map boundary lines. This technology enabled the ranking of legislative districts, from highest to lowest, to ascertain the effect of change regionally and statewide. This study's quantitative and descriptive research was tested against the opinions of policy elite experts. The respondents commented on this study's findings, interpretations, and validity.; The longitudinal state model documented changing trends and patterns in New Jersey socio-demographically, economically, and politically. The gap between urban and suburban legislative district populations continues to widen socially and economically. Despite the enactment of three pieces of legislation that employed three different funding formulas, the gap in school funding disparities between poorer urban and wealthier suburban legislative districts persists.; In light of the findings of this study, New Jersey's school finance policy was partially effective in closing the gap between disparities in funding in urban and suburban legislative districts to the extent that policy responded to serial litigation and economic conditions. Over all, the widening gap between the state's socio-demographically and economically diverse populations makes school funding equity difficult and costly to achieve, based on the present school district configurations and reliance on local property taxes.