Chapter 32: New Jersey

Since 1973, the New Jersey state supreme court has handed down a series of decisions in an effort to uphold the state’s constitutional requirement of a ‘thorough and efficient’ system of public education for all students. In Robinson v. Cahill¹ the court determined that the system of financing public education in New Jersey was unconstitutional. Since that groundbreaking case, the state’s high court has repeatedly imparted numerous rulings, variously known as the Abbott² decisions, to provide all students in New Jersey with equal access to quality public education. During that time, the court better defined what a thorough and efficient education really means. Goertz et. al. make the point that through these court decisions: