In Education Finance Reform, Politics Trumps Children Again

March 14, 2001 - Last night, State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer served appeal reply papers on lawyers for the nonprofit Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE), which in January won a historic lawsuit to reform the fiscal formula by which New York State allocates aid to local school districts.

Attorney General Spitzer requested a full nine months, the maximum length of time allowed under the law, to file the state’s appeal --in direct contradiction to his earlier public commitment to expedite an appeal.

The plaintiffs have asked Spitzer to file his papers within two months. If the court upholds Spitzer's position, it could mean that another year will elapse before the appeal is adjudicated. This would give the State yet more time before it must move toward what many believe is inevitable: the correction of an education aid formula that places politics above public education, and the political concerns of elected officials over the welfare of the state’s two million school children.

In allowing his attorney general so extensive a time in which to bring the state’s fiscal formula into constitutional compliance, Governor Pataki contradicts statements he made in his January State of the State address, during which he called the formula "a dinosaur that should be consigned to the dust bin of history."

Today, Michael Rebell, Executive Director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, called on Spitzer and the Governor to reconsider their legal delay tactic, saying it is an example of "endless legal maneuvering by the state" that threatens our children’s future.

"We already know what should be done," said Rebell. "The Governor and the Attorney General are both on record acknowledging that reform is necessary. Let’s get the process of reform rolling instead of leaving our children languishing in inadequately funded schools."