NEW JERSEY

Constitutional Clause/Language

“The legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free pubic schools for the instruction of all the children in this state between the ages of five and eighteen.”  
 

First Major Court Decision: Robinson v. Cahill, 303 A. 2d 273 (N.J. 1973).

Result: Financing System Overturned

Summary: The court declined to hold that wealth is a suspect class or that education is fundamental right.  However, the court held that every child is entitled to an “equal educational opportunity.”

Key Quotes:

“New Jersey’s financing scheme is not a “thorough and efficient” system because it does not provide for equal education opportunity for children.”

“We hesitate to turn this case upon the State equal protection clause. The reason is that the equal protection clause may be unmanageable if it is called upon to supply categorical answers in the vast area of human needs, choosing those which must be met and a single basis upon which the State must act. The difficulties become apparent in the argument in the case at hand.  We will consider first the claim that there is classification according to "wealth," then the claim that a "fundamental right" is involved, and finally the claim that no "compelling state interest" warrants the statutory treatment of the subject.”  Id. at 283.

“… It cannot be said the 1875 amendments were intended to insure statewide equality among taxpayers. But we do not doubt that an equal educational opportunity for children was precisely in mind. The mandate that there be maintained and supported "a thorough and efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all the children in the State between the ages of five and eighteen years" can have no other import. Whether the State acts directly or imposes the role upon local government, the end product must be what the Constitution commands. A system of instruction in any district of the State that is not thorough and efficient falls short of the constitutional command. Whatever the reason for the violation, the obligation is the State's to rectify it. If local government fails, the State government must compel it to act, and if the local government cannot carry the burden, the State must itself meet its continuing obligation.”  Id. at 294.