Our current conceptions of educational adequacy emerged out of an era dominated by equity-based school resource litigation. During that time of transitioning between successful litigation strategies, legal opinions provided clues as to how future courts might view a norm-referenced approach to establishing an adequacy standard--an approach that…

Adequate funding for the nation's schools to meet the call for higher student achievement has been a litigious issue. Spending on schools is a political choice. The choices made by state legislatures, in some cases, have failed to fund schools adequately and have incited school finance lawsuits in almost all states. These proceedings are generally…

Education finance policy in New Jersey has been shaped by over 30 years of school finance litigation. Through its decisions in "Robinson v. Cahill" (1973-1976) and "Abbott v. Burke" (1985-2005), the justices of New Jersey's supreme court have defined the state's constitutional guarantee of a "thorough and efficient"…

This paper discusses the role of the courts in public policy formation, with particular attention to the impact of the New Jersey Supreme Court's decision in Robinson v. Cahill. The author explores the implications of judicial involvement in policy controversies by examining the responses of the New Jersey legislature and Department of Education…

Concerns the ability of the New Jersey school reform groups that won in court in the Robinson v. Cahill decision to gain access and the requisite resources to affect the new school finance formula and the development of "thorough and efficient" guidelines. (Author/IRT)

In the 1973 court case "Robinson v. Cahill," the New Jersey courts set the agenda for educational reform. The court decision placed the question of how to ascertain educational quality before the legislature; this resulted in the development of a comprehensive statewide curriculum program emphasizing standards of performance and…