February 15, 2005
Judge Orders Billions in Aid to City Schools
By GREG WINTER, NY TIMES

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A state judge ruled last night that an additional $5.6 billion must be spent on the city's public schoolchildren every year to ensure them the opportunity for a sound basic education that they are guaranteed under the State Constitution.

Beyond that, another $9.2 billion must be spent over the next five years to shrink class sizes, relieve overcrowding and provide the city's 1.1 million students with enough laboratories, libraries and other places in which to learn.

In his ruling - the latest in a 12-year court battle - Justice Leland DeGrasse of State Supreme Court in Manhattan adopted the recommendations made last November by a panel of lawyers and judges that he appointed. The panel held hearings for several months and ultimately came very close to recommending exactly what the plaintiffs, who sued to compel more money for the city's schools, had asked for.

But the judge did not say how much of the money should come from the state or from the city, leaving unanswered one of the most contentious questions facing lawmakers.

"We're very pleased," said Michael A. Rebell, executive director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, the plaintiff in the case. "After 12 years, there's finally a dollar figure. We hope the governor will sit down and meet with us, and with the Legislature. Let's wrap this thing up."

The amount the judge ordered was nearly triple what Gov. George E. Pataki's lawyers had proposed to the court, and the governor's office said last night that it would appeal the decision, though New York's highest court has largely upheld Justice DeGrasse's earlier rulings.

"The governor has worked tirelessly to reach a consensus among all parties that would allow us to ensure that every child in every school across New York receives the first-class education they deserve," said Kevin Quinn, a spokesman for Mr. Pataki. "He continues to believe that we need a statewide solution and that these decisions should be made by elected representatives of the people, not the courts."

The decision is a major landmark in one of the nation's biggest school- finance cases, and may have ripple effects across all school districts in the state. Though virtually every state in the nation has been embroiled in lawsuits over school spending, the New York suit has been more closely watched, in part because of the number of students and the dollar figures at stake.

The ruling is particularly rare because Justice DeGrasse, who has overseen the case since 1993, has now ordered a specific amount of money to be spent on the city's schools. With that step, the courts have moved into a realm that is usually the closely defended prerogative of lawmakers.

Still, the judge noted that more than 18 months has passed since New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals, ordered the state to starting fixing the city's schools. Yet lawmakers in Albany have made very little headway toward improving them.

Justice DeGrasse has long said that he would not hesitate to intervene if the state failed to bring the schools to a constitutionally acceptable level, and in his decision he reminded the parties that "the 'wrong' in this case has been ongoing for more than a decade."

Even so, Justice DeGrasse refused to hold the state in contempt of court for not having acted, a penalty sought by the plaintiff, which is a nonprofit advocacy group of educators, politicians and parents. Instead, it appeared that he would give the state a chance to heed last night's ruling before imposing any fines for its inaction. The ruling gives the state 90 days to act.

The $5.6 billion figure cited by the judge represents a 43 percent increase to the city's $12.9 billion annual school budget.

The ruling, however, was not a clear victory for the city, which has said it cannot afford to spend more on its schools and urged the judge to require the state to shoulder all of the extra costs. But Justice DeGrasse, like the Court of Appeals before him, ruled that the Legislature should decide how the burden should be shared.

In that light, while Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg praised the ruling as "another historic victory" for the city's public schools, some officials acknowledged that the ruling was not a grand slam.

Indeed, the city's reluctance to bear any responsibility for the costs of a resolution has proved to be an impediment in previous negotiations. Mayor Bloomberg gave few signs that he intended to back down in future ones, either.

"It is clear that such a solution would be grievously unfair," the mayor said last night. "The wrongs imposed on the city's students resulted from the state's failures, and if new funds are required, the Legislature must make certain that these funds come from all of the state's taxpayers."

To come up with the figures he ordered last night, Justice DeGrasse appointed a three-member panel last summer to wrestle with the complicated question of what it would cost to provide every student with the sound, basic education the Constitution requires.

Throughout extensive public hearings, the panelists repeatedly showed impatience with the state's suggestion that it could sufficiently improve the schools by spending less than $2 billion more a year.

The panel included E. Leo Milonas, a former state appellate judge and past president of the City Bar Association; William C. Thompson, a former New York City council member, state senator and appellate judge, whose son is the city's comptroller; and John D. Feerick, the former dean of Fordham University School of Law, who was also a president of the City Bar Association.

In their report, the legal referees called for an unusually aggressive timetable, allowing the state no more than 90 days to devise and begin enacting a plan that would eventually put an extra $5.6 billion every year toward running the city's schools. They gave the state four years to reach the full amount, starting with $1.4 billion in the first year, $2.8 billion in the second, and $4.2 billion in the third.

The governor has said that the state can eventually raise as much as $2 billion a year from video lottery terminals. How to raise the rest will most likely be a topic of fierce debate in Albany.

The panelists also gave the state only 90 days to figure out how to provide an extra $9.2 billion for school construction and repairs. The plan calls for about $1.8 billion in each of the five years.

Pataki Will Appeal $23 Billion Court Order on Schools
BY JULIA LEVY - Staff Reporter of the Sun
February 15, 2005

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A Manhattan judge, endorsing the recommendation of a court-appointed panel yesterday, ordered that the state Legislature and Governor Pataki allocate billions of dollars more to New York City's public schools.

Mayor Bloomberg, state and city legislators, and advocates for greater school financing immediately praised the order. It directs the state senate, the assembly, and the governor to increase the city schools' operating budget over the next four years until it has risen by $5.63 billion a year.

The order presages steep increases in state and perhaps city taxes, as officials, who already are fending off deficits of billions of dollars, must scramble for ways to satisfy the judgment. The mayor said the city shouldn't have to contribute to the increased education aid, and the majority leader of the state Senate, Joseph Bruno, has said Albany should not raise taxes. Thus, where the billions of dollars might come from remains a mystery.

Within hours of the order's release by state Supreme Court Justice Leland DeGrasse, a spokesman for Mr. Pataki vowed the governor would appeal the decision, claiming that "elected representatives of the people, not the courts," should be deciding how to finance public schools.

"The governor has worked tirelessly to reach a consensus among all parties that would allow us to ensure that every child in every school across New York receives the first-class education they deserve," the spokesman, Kevin Quinn, said in a statement. "He continues to believe that we need a statewide solution and that these decisions should be made by elected representatives of the people, not the courts, and therefore an appeal will be filed."

Through a spokeswoman, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who represented the state in the litigation, said all questions about the ruling should be referred to the governor. Mr. Spitzer has announced that he will run for governor next year.

Yesterday's order followed a dozen years of litigation stemming from a lawsuit filed by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity on behalf of the children of New York City. The lawsuit said the city's public schools were not giving children the "sound basic education" they are guaranteed under the state constitution.

Justice DeGrasse found for the plaintiffs, and in June 2003 New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals, found the state indeed was not providing a "sound basic education." The court affirmed Justice DeGrasse's original ruling and gave the state until last July 30 to determine the price of a sound basic education and take measures to ensure its provision. When the governor and the Legislature could not agree on what action to take, Justice DeGrasse appointed the panel of special referees.

Last November 30, the referees said the city's public schools deserved $1.4 billion extra in the coming school year. They suggested a four-year phase-in plan, under which the city schools would receive $5.63 billion a year in extra operating aid - a 45% increase - by the 2008-09 school year. They also recommended an extra $9.2 billion for capital projects over the next five years. The bottom line would be well over $20 billion in additional aid to the city's school system over the next five years alone.

In addition to upholding the dollar figures recommended by the special referees, Justice DeGrasse turned down yesterday a motion by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity to fine the state for every day it does not comply with the court ruling. The executive director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, Michael Rebell, said it seems that if the state does not comply with the new order, then the plaintiffs could resubmit their motion, because it was rejected on grounds that because the Court of Appeals remanded the case, the defendants had not disobeyed "a lawful judicial order expressing an unequivocal mandate."

Justice DeGrasse also turned down an appeal by the city's top lawyer to force the state to pay the whole bill for the reforms.

"The city cites equities which weigh heavily against the state in light of its long documented history of shortchanging the city's public schools," the judge wrote. "Nevertheless, CFE II categorically provides that it is for the Legislature to determine how school funding should be distributed between State and City. ... Therefore, this court lacks the power to prohibit the State from requiring the City to contribute additional operating funding."

Yesterday evening, when news first broke that the judge had upheld the recommendations of the referees he had appointed, Mayor Bloomberg said in a statement, "I hope and anticipate that Governor Pataki, Speaker Silver, Senate Majority Leader Bruno and all of the members of the Legislature will now step up to the plate and implement expeditiously a state solution to this state-caused problem."

He called the ruling "another historic victory" for the city's school children and said: "These funds will be dedicated to fulfilling one of my top priorities and our city's most important mission: ensuring that every public school student has the opportunity to get a high quality and meaningful education."

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat of Manhattan, said he could see no reason to delay compliance with the order.

"There are no longer any outstanding issues, and the governor now must no longer delay and not continue his appeals, thus ensuring children remain without the resources that have clearly been determined they need to succeed," Mr. Silver said in a statement. "I urge the governor to lead an immediate effort to bring all the parties together to meet the legal and moral obligation we have to provide for the education of all our children."

Once the Pataki administration announced its intention to appeal, Mr. Silver's spokesman, Skip Carrier, said the speaker stands by his statement that the governor should put an end to his appeals.

Assemblyman Steven Sanders, a Manhattan Democrat who is chairman of the Education Committee, likewise told The New York Sun that the governor should not appeal further and should work to find a solution.

"The governor should waste no time in bringing together the relevant parties to get a resolution in the budget," Mr. Sanders said. "He ought to convene a summit immediately and get about the business of providing the leadership to get this matter resolved and get it resolved in this year's budget."

He said the governor has already appealed all the facts in the matter and any further appeal would concern "technicalities having nothing to do with the facts in the CFE case." Mr. Sanders predicted an appeal by the governor would "undoubtedly be unsuccessful," and he said: 'If the governor were to do that, it would be a signal that all he's interested in doing is delaying the inevitable and delaying it for a length of time so that he doesn't have to deal with the issue."

Mr. Rebell said that based on the history of the case he wouldn't be surprised if the governor filed an appeal, but he said: "I would hope that we could renew our discussions with the governor, with the legislative leaders, and that we could all work for the welfare of the kids, not only in New York City but also in the rest of the state."

He added, "I think if he does appeal, it would be a cruel imposition on schoolchildren throughout the state of New York because the direction is now clear. The Court of Appeals issued a final order. All an appeal would do is delay this and deny another tens of thousands of kids another year's worth of their constitutional right."

He and Mr. Sanders both said the extra school funds should be written into the budget for the coming school year. The deadline for Albany to approve the budget is April 1.

Council Member Robert Jackson, who was one of the plaintiffs in the original lawsuit, was outraged when he was told yesterday evening that Mr. Pataki intends to appeal the judge's order.

He said the governor made sure his own children received quality educations and he should make sure that the children of New York City are afforded the same.

"If he's not willing to make those tough decisions, let him resign," Mr. Jackson said in a telephone interview. "I will make those decisions for him. Don't play politics with our children and our lives."

He said parents, students, and politicians should rally and picket to convince Mr. Pataki to change his mind.

"We need to go to his home," he said. "People from all over the state need to bring pressure on the governor. The children of New York City and the state of New York deserve a sound basic education."

The president of the principals union, Jill Levy, urged Mr. Bloomberg to do everything in his power to sway the governor.

Some of the Democrats vying to run against Mr. Bloomberg in the November election had harsher words for the mayor - even though they shared his basic position that the court was correct to order the Legislature to send more money to city schools.

The City Council speaker, Gifford Miller, said in a statement, "I've always fought for our children's education as my first priority. With Justice DeGrasse's decision today, it's even more clear that our choice must be schools over a stadium."

A member of Congress from Brooklyn and Queens, Anthony Weiner, said the battle over school financing represented "another case where having a Republican in City Hall hasn't helped the city at all."

The Manhattan borough president, C. Virginia Fields, released a statement that said: "The mayor and the governor must stop the delays, come together, and put the solutions of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity into the classrooms."

One of the Republicans planning to oppose Mr. Bloomberg in the primary, Thomas Ognibene, said the "scariest part is that the judge said he can't stop the state from making the city pay for it all."

Instead of complaining about a shortage of education funds - which doesn't seem to be on its way anytime soon - the mayor should start implementing real reforms, Mr. Ognibene said.

"The mayor's education reform is really an illusion of reform," he said. "The mayor put a spin on taxes, he put the spin on his education achievements, if he does any more spinning, we'll have to put him in a tutu. He spun this judgment too. He is hailing it as victory and the judge just reaffirmed what has already happened. This might go all the way to the Supreme Court on a separation of powers issue. This may be Marbury v. Madison all over again. The mayor ought to take a more realistic approach and use his influence now to reform the schools and forget about the additional money."

Mr. Pataki has 30 days to file an appeal.

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