Lessons from CFE

The Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) announced in a letter last week that it was considering re-opening the lawsuit against New York State, on the basis that the funding promised NYC and other high-needs school districts has never been fulfilled.

Below is a presentation on CFE  delivered by Leonie Haimson at Princeton, for a course on urban education policy. Haimson summarizes the history of the case, as well as where it fell short in terms of class size, public process, accountability and compliance.

Even in the first few years, when NYC did get all the extra funding that had been promised, class sizes also increased — despite a provision in the state law requiring that the city be reducing class size in exchange for the funds.

Lessons learned:

• How money is spent is as important as the extra funding;

• Enforcement, compliance and accountability mechanisms are critical;

• Do not rely on any city or state governmental body to do any of the above;

• This time, continuing court oversight should be required, to ensure that the specific conditions that the court found deprived children of their constitutional right to a sound basic education are addressed, including class size.

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