Campaign for Fiscal Equity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE), a not-for-profit organization based in New York City, is a coalition of parent organizations, community school boards and advocacy groups seeking to reform New York State's school finance system to ensure adequate funding of education in New York City.
CFE was founded in 1993 and receives funding from a range of sources, including the Ford Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation.
CFE filed a constitutional challenge to the New York State school funding system in 1993. The lawsuit, CFE v. State of New York, claims that the state's school finance system under-funds New York City public schools and denies its students their constitutional right to a sound basic education.
The Court of Appeals, New York's highest court, ruled in 1995 that the New York State constitution requires that the state offer all children the opportunity for a "sound basic education." In 2001 State Supreme Court Justice Leland DeGrasse found that the current state school funding system was unconstitutional. Governor George Pataki appealed the decision, which was overturned in 2002 by the Appellate Division. CFE appealed to the Court of Appeals, which again found in favor of CFE in 2003. The Court of Appeals gave the State of New York until July 30, 2004 to comply with its order.
The state failed to meet this deadline, however, and the court appointed three referees who were given until November 30, 2004 to submit a compliance plan to Justice Leland DeGrasse of the State Supreme Court. Justice DeGrasse agreed with the referees' recommendations and in 2005 ruled that New York City schools need nearly $15 billion to provide students with their constitutional right to the opportunity to receive a sound basic education.
Governor Pataki appealed again to the Appellate Division. In 2006, however, the Appellate Division ordered the State Legislature to consider a plan to direct between $4.7 billion and $5.63 billion to New York City schools and upheld an earlier ruling to provide about $9.2 billion in capital funds to the school system over five years.
- See also: Education in New York City
