Campaign for Fiscal Equity
Encyclopedia
The Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) is a not-for-profit advocacy organization seeking to protect and promote the constitutional right to a sound basic education for all public school students in the State of New York. The organization filed and won the landmark "CFE v. State of New York" lawsuit which successfully argued that the state's school finance system under-funded New York City public schools and denied its students their constitutional right.
The CFE has become the main group involved in New York’s education reform
movement. It monitors the education policy initiatives and budgets of New York while analyzing and reporting on public funding. According to the group’s website :
It receives funding from a range of sources, including the Ford Foundation
, The Rockefeller Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and the Schott Foundation.
, 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," defined as a meaningful high school education that prepares students for competitive employment and civic participation.
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 needed an additional $5.6 billion in annual operating aid and an additional $9.2 billion over five years for building, renovating, and leasing facilities in order 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 March 2006 the Appellate Division upheld most of the Supreme Court's ruling, ordering the state to provide between $4.7 billion and $5.63 billion in annual operating aid and $9.2 billion in capital funds. On April 1, the legislature enacted capital funding that met the court's requirement, but it did not comply with the operational funding order.
In November 2006, the Court of Appeals reaffirmed its 2003 decision, but citing the limited authority of the courts to direct the manner in which state money is spent, merely ordered the state to consider providing at least $2 billion more in annual operating aid to New York City's public schools.
is enforced to offer resources and aid to the highest-need students in the lowest-performing schools. The above mentioned primary accountability tool, the Contract for Excellence, is an annual plan which provides school-by-school reporting. It is completed and submitted by the low performing school districts that receive the increased funding from the state. The purpose of the contract is to target education strategies such as reduced class size, teacher/principal quality, full day pre-K, high school/middle school restructuring and model programs for English Language Learners.
The contracts were developed in 2007. In the 2007-08 school year, 55 school districts ( list of school districts in New York ) in the state of New York completed and submitted Contracts for Excellence. School improvements were seen as the numbers decreased to 38 districts in 2008-09 and 32 districts in 2009-10.
In June 2010, an Analysis of New York City’s 2009-10 Approved Contract for Excellence Allocations was released. The proposed funding and allocations approved by the State Education Department are compared. The report shows the decrease in spending on the “Class Size Reduction” by 11% as compared to the proposed funding, causing 62 fewer schools to receive allocations for more classes and lower teacher:pupil ratios. There was an increase in spending on “Time on Task” by 20%, giving these allocations to 82 additional schools. A small decrease in spending was seen in the “Teacher and Principal Quality”, decreasing by 1.4%. “Middle and High School Restructuring” also had a small decrease of 3% while “Full Day pre-K” had an 8% increase. The final category “Model Programs for English Language Learners” saw a 2% increase in funding.
The sharp increase in funding under the “Time on Task” category gives funding for Summer School and dedicated instruction. While the “Class Size Reduction” category experienced the sharpest decrease, it still receives the largest amount of funding.
The New York State legislature passed a budget for the 2008-9 school year that fully funded the Education Act, promoted by the CFE year 2 budget. An increase of $643 million was given to New York City schools during this year. However, under the Contract for Excellence, schools were required to be in need of improvement for two years instead of the one previously required. This limited the number of schools offered aid.
The 2009-10 school year maintained previous education spending levels, but saw no funding increase freezing the CFE. However, the cuts proposed by the Executive Budget
were not experienced by the public schools. The New York State Legislature stated that the funding increase should resume again in the 2011-12 school year.
, who acted as the executive director of the CFE and is now the director of the Campaign for Educational Equity at the Teachers College, Columbia University
, the money given to public schools was not used properly. The city left it up to school principals to decide how they would use the funding allotted to their school. These principals were only required to report how they intended to use the funds not how they actually spent them. Rebell says:
In June of 2011, the CFE essentially ran out of money and could no longer sustain itself. The office in the lower Manhattan region of New York was shut down. However, the president expressed hope for the group as he has discussed merging with the NJ Education Law Center which received $500 million in a similar case to the CFE vs. State, known as the Abbott case taking place within the Abbott district
of New Jersey. He hopes that they will be able to have a New York advisory board which could keep the CFE name. President Miranda says:
Billy Easton, the executive director for the Alliance for Quality Education is also interested in the two groups getting involved with one another. He says:
The freezing of the CFE seen in the 2009-10 school year had detrimental effects on the group and its cause. Economic crisis and budget cuts caused public school funding to decrease, undoing the measures put in place by the CFE. It is estimated that the $1.3 billion cut in education aid by New York State Legislature brings the finance levels back to pre-lawsuit levels. Michael Rebell
says that this budget cut will wipe out all work done by the CFE since 1993. He explains the dangers associate with public school funding cuts, specifically for high-need students in low-funded schools. Rebell says:
The closing of the CFE has had huge effects on public schools in New York along with other groups involved with the same cause. “Dropout Nation” claims that the shutdown of the CFE marks the end of the traditional school funding lawsuits. In contrast to beliefs of the CFE, they claim that it will take more than funding to fix the public school system. Increased funding often gets “tied up in ineffective practices” and does not offer new education opportunities to students who need them. According to “Dropout Nation”, the only way to make school spending more efficient and effective in improving public school education is to reform the K-12 system as a whole.
The CFE has become the main group involved in New York’s education reform
Education reform
Education reform is the process of improving public education. Small improvements in education theoretically have large social returns, in health, wealth and well-being. Historically, reforms have taken different forms because the motivations of reformers have differed.A continuing motivation has...
movement. It monitors the education policy initiatives and budgets of New York while analyzing and reporting on public funding. According to the group’s website :
"CFE’s policy research and analyses yield in-depth, fact-based-and actionable-reports to stimulate discussion and inform decision-making on critical education policy questions-including those raised by the addition of new operating and capital resources and accountability measures."
Funding and history of the organization
CFE was founded in 1993 by a coalition of concerned parents and education advocates. Their concerns involved inadequate funding for New York Public Schools. They filed a constitutional challenge stating that the state was under-funding the public schools in New York City. Schools in New York City received enough funding to spend $10,469 per student while neighboring schools in New York suburbs received enough to fund $13,760 per student.It receives funding from a range of sources, including the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
, The Rockefeller Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and the Schott Foundation.
Board of Directors
The president of the CFE is Luis Miranda. The secretary and treasure are Ocynthia Williams and Steven Sanders respectively. The group also has various directors and managing directors including Edward Fergus, Geri D. Palast and Dennis Parker. Helaine K. Doran serves as the CFE Deputy Director.Campaign for Fiscal Equity, Inc. v. State
CFE filed its 13-year-long constitutional challenge to the New York State school funding system in 1993. The Court of AppealsNew York Court of Appeals
The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the U.S. state of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six associate judges who are appointed by the Governor to 14-year terms...
, 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," defined as a meaningful high school education that prepares students for competitive employment and civic participation.
Actions and lawsuits 2001-2006
In 2001 State Supreme Court Justice Leland DeGrasse found that the current state school funding system was unconstitutional. Governor George PatakiGeorge Pataki
George Elmer Pataki is an American politician who was the 53rd Governor of New York. A member of the Republican Party, Pataki served three consecutive four-year terms from January 1, 1995 until December 31, 2006.- Early life :...
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 needed an additional $5.6 billion in annual operating aid and an additional $9.2 billion over five years for building, renovating, and leasing facilities in order 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 March 2006 the Appellate Division upheld most of the Supreme Court's ruling, ordering the state to provide between $4.7 billion and $5.63 billion in annual operating aid and $9.2 billion in capital funds. On April 1, the legislature enacted capital funding that met the court's requirement, but it did not comply with the operational funding order.
In November 2006, the Court of Appeals reaffirmed its 2003 decision, but citing the limited authority of the courts to direct the manner in which state money is spent, merely ordered the state to consider providing at least $2 billion more in annual operating aid to New York City's public schools.
Education Budget and Reform Act of 2007
During the 13-year long constitutional challenge, the CFE partnered with existing organizations across the state of New York. The group wanted to ensure that the new education finance system reform being put into place would successful provide adequate funds and resources to students in public schools through the state, not just in New York City. Thousands of advocates, educators, school board members, business people, parents, students and community members worked to develop a statewide coalition for reform. Examples of campaigns used to raise awareness among New York citizens include: “Fair Funding, Better Schools” and the “100 Days to Educational Excellence”. The framework formed by the CFE were finally recognized in April of 2007 when the New York State Legislature enacted the State Education Budget and Reform Act of 2007. Under this law are the following mandates: 1) commitment to raise annual state aid for education in 2010-11 by $7 billion; 2) foundation formula committed to distributing aid solely based on need; 3) new input/output accountability requirements; and 4) public participation requirements in developing, approving and enforcing the Contracts of Excellence (law’s primary accountability tool).Contract for Excellence (C4E)
The Education ActEducation Act
Education Act is a stock short title used for legislation in Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States that relates to education.-United Kingdom and predecessor states:*The Education Act 1833...
is enforced to offer resources and aid to the highest-need students in the lowest-performing schools. The above mentioned primary accountability tool, the Contract for Excellence, is an annual plan which provides school-by-school reporting. It is completed and submitted by the low performing school districts that receive the increased funding from the state. The purpose of the contract is to target education strategies such as reduced class size, teacher/principal quality, full day pre-K, high school/middle school restructuring and model programs for English Language Learners.
The contracts were developed in 2007. In the 2007-08 school year, 55 school districts ( list of school districts in New York ) in the state of New York completed and submitted Contracts for Excellence. School improvements were seen as the numbers decreased to 38 districts in 2008-09 and 32 districts in 2009-10.
In June 2010, an Analysis of New York City’s 2009-10 Approved Contract for Excellence Allocations was released. The proposed funding and allocations approved by the State Education Department are compared. The report shows the decrease in spending on the “Class Size Reduction” by 11% as compared to the proposed funding, causing 62 fewer schools to receive allocations for more classes and lower teacher:pupil ratios. There was an increase in spending on “Time on Task” by 20%, giving these allocations to 82 additional schools. A small decrease in spending was seen in the “Teacher and Principal Quality”, decreasing by 1.4%. “Middle and High School Restructuring” also had a small decrease of 3% while “Full Day pre-K” had an 8% increase. The final category “Model Programs for English Language Learners” saw a 2% increase in funding.
The sharp increase in funding under the “Time on Task” category gives funding for Summer School and dedicated instruction. While the “Class Size Reduction” category experienced the sharpest decrease, it still receives the largest amount of funding.
CFE work since 2007
The CFE works to secure full funding and implementation of the massive school finance and accountability reforms, to ensure transparency and adequate information to measure academic progress, and secure meaningful public participation in the development of education programs and policies. The watchdog organization has been instrumental in developing and implementing the "Contract for Excellence", as well as other initiatives seeking to bring new funds and resources to the highest-needs students in the lowest-performing schools across New York State.The New York State legislature passed a budget for the 2008-9 school year that fully funded the Education Act, promoted by the CFE year 2 budget. An increase of $643 million was given to New York City schools during this year. However, under the Contract for Excellence, schools were required to be in need of improvement for two years instead of the one previously required. This limited the number of schools offered aid.
The 2009-10 school year maintained previous education spending levels, but saw no funding increase freezing the CFE. However, the cuts proposed by the Executive Budget
Executive budget
The executive budget is the budget for the executive branch of the United States government. It was established as one of the reforms during the Progressive Era and became a federal policy in 1921 under the Woodrow Wilson Administration. The process of creating the executive budget consists of...
were not experienced by the public schools. The New York State Legislature stated that the funding increase should resume again in the 2011-12 school year.
Trouble in the CFE
Problems arose after the CFE won their 13-year lawsuit. According to Michael RebellMichael Rebell
Michael A. Rebell is the Executive Director of the at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is an experienced litigator in the field of education law, and he is also Professor Law and Educational Practice at Teachers College and Columbia Law School....
, who acted as the executive director of the CFE and is now the director of the Campaign for Educational Equity at the Teachers College, Columbia University
Teachers College, Columbia University
Teachers College, Columbia University is a graduate school of education located in New York City, New York...
, the money given to public schools was not used properly. The city left it up to school principals to decide how they would use the funding allotted to their school. These principals were only required to report how they intended to use the funds not how they actually spent them. Rebell says:
"It's all over the place. There's no way anybody can keep track of what's going on with that money, whether it's made any difference, whether it's being used well".
In June of 2011, the CFE essentially ran out of money and could no longer sustain itself. The office in the lower Manhattan region of New York was shut down. However, the president expressed hope for the group as he has discussed merging with the NJ Education Law Center which received $500 million in a similar case to the CFE vs. State, known as the Abbott case taking place within the Abbott district
Abbott District
Abbott districts are school districts in New Jersey that are provided remedies to ensure that their students receive public education in accordance with New Jersey’s state constitution. They were created in 1985 as a result of the first ruling of Abbott v. Burke, a case filed by the Education Law...
of New Jersey. He hopes that they will be able to have a New York advisory board which could keep the CFE name. President Miranda says:
"We realized it would be impossible to financially sustain an agency standing by itself”.
Billy Easton, the executive director for the Alliance for Quality Education is also interested in the two groups getting involved with one another. He says:
“It’s really exciting that the Education Law Center is exploring how they can be involved with the Campaign for Fiscal Equity…. This [Education Law Center] is an organization with a 30-year history of repeated successful lawsuits on school funding.”
The freezing of the CFE seen in the 2009-10 school year had detrimental effects on the group and its cause. Economic crisis and budget cuts caused public school funding to decrease, undoing the measures put in place by the CFE. It is estimated that the $1.3 billion cut in education aid by New York State Legislature brings the finance levels back to pre-lawsuit levels. Michael Rebell
Michael Rebell
Michael A. Rebell is the Executive Director of the at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is an experienced litigator in the field of education law, and he is also Professor Law and Educational Practice at Teachers College and Columbia Law School....
says that this budget cut will wipe out all work done by the CFE since 1993. He explains the dangers associate with public school funding cuts, specifically for high-need students in low-funded schools. Rebell says:
“That children's education rights cannot be temporarily suspended is not only a matter of law but also of common sense: A child who misses her opportunity to learn to read during the critical early school years forever falls behind. A teenager who drops out of high school rarely will return to complete his education. This is especially true for the low-income and minority-group students whose educational needs are the greatest and who tend to be the most detrimentally affected by service reductions.”
The closing of the CFE has had huge effects on public schools in New York along with other groups involved with the same cause. “Dropout Nation” claims that the shutdown of the CFE marks the end of the traditional school funding lawsuits. In contrast to beliefs of the CFE, they claim that it will take more than funding to fix the public school system. Increased funding often gets “tied up in ineffective practices” and does not offer new education opportunities to students who need them. According to “Dropout Nation”, the only way to make school spending more efficient and effective in improving public school education is to reform the K-12 system as a whole.
See also
- Education in New York CityEducation in New York CityEducation in New York City is provided by a vast number of public and private institutions. The city's public school system, the New York City Department of Education, is the largest in the world, and New York is home to some of the most important libraries, universities, and research centers in...
- Michael RebellMichael RebellMichael A. Rebell is the Executive Director of the at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is an experienced litigator in the field of education law, and he is also Professor Law and Educational Practice at Teachers College and Columbia Law School....
- Robert Jackson (NYC)Robert Jackson (NYC)Robert Jackson is a member of the New York City Council, representing the 7th District in Manhattan. The district includes portions of the neighborhoods Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood. Jackson, first elected in 2001, is a Democrat. He will be term limited in 2013.Before being elected to...
- Geri PalastGeri PalastGeri Palast is an attorney, the executive director for the Campaign for Fiscal Equity , and a Root-Tilden Public Service Law Scholar from NYU School of Law.-Early life, education, and family:...
External links
- Official website of the CFE
- Full text of January 10, 2001 ruling