NEW YORK, NY June 26, 2002 — Education activists are promising to appeal a decision by an appeals court that said a Manhattan Judge went too far when he ordered New York to change it's funding formula in city schools. The State Supremem Court's appelate division reversed what had been considered a landmark ruling which could have resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in additional school aid for New York City. WNYC's Beth Fertig reports.

This case is about one thing: the definition of a sound basic education as required by the state's constitution. Last year, State Supreme Court Justice Leland Degrasse ordered the state to change its formula for school aid because it didn't provide what he considered a sound basic education for the students of New York City. The judge said, quote, "The majority of the city's public school students leave high school unprepared for more than low paying work, unprepared for college, and unprepared for the duties placed upon them by a democratic society."

But yesterday, an appeals court called those standards aspirational. The five member panel said quote, "society needs workers in all levels of jobs… the majority of which may well be very low level." By a vote of 4 to 1, the judges also sided with the state's argument that an eighth or ninth grade education was enough to prepare a student for employment, voting and jury duty. And the majority said the lower court failed to quantify how much more schooling was actually needed.

That decision stunned Michael Rebell, of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity… an education group that brought the case.

REBELL It in essence meant we could close down all the high schools because the state was saying an 8th grade education was all the students of NY state and NY city were entitled to."

The decision prompted a swift outcry from Mayor Bloomberg, Chancellor Harold Levy, and the teachers union. Robert Jackson, a city councilman who was one of the lead plaintiffs in the case, disagreed with the court's ruling that city schools provide an adequate education.

JACKSON: And if in fact they're telling me this, then I say to all of them send your kids to school and allow them to finish at the 8th grade and see whether or not they will receive a job that will be competitive in the year 2002.

LINDSETH: "I think that's a mis-statement of what the court said."

Al Lindseth is an attorney who helped represent the state in the lawsuit. He works at the Atlanta based firm Sutherland, Asbill and Brennan. Lindseth says the decision does not mean the state thinks 8th grade is all its students are entitled to. Rather, he says, the court had no choice but to apply a very low standard set under state education law.

LINDSETH: They also said, they looked at whether it was caused by insufficient funding. And basically said you've got a system funded by a tune of almost 10 thousand dollars per child per year, which is about $250,000 a classroom and basically said there's not sufficient evidence here to show a lack of funding is preventing the NYC school system from offering a basic education."

Nor was the court impressed by statistics showing city schools have more overcrowded classrooms than other districts, fewer certified teachers and a high proportion of students who don't graduate high school. The appeals court also reversed another part of last year's landmark ruling, which found the state violated federal civil rights laws… because its funding formula had a disproportionate impact on the city's mostly minority students. The appellate panel said the plaintiffs didn't have legal standing to make such a case.

The Campaign for Fiscal Equity vowed to appeal the decision to the state's highest court. But the track record for similar school funding lawsuits is mixed, says Michael Griffith, of the Denver based Education Commission of the States.

GRIFFITH: Is an adequate education that students read 12th grade level or 8th grade level? Is it math or algebra? Each one of those things is tough to provide a cost to.

Meanwhile, yesterday's ruling was a setback for those who hoped the city could reap hundreds of millions of dollars in additional school aid… simply based on the fact that for years, the city had 38 percent the state's pupils but got just about 36 percent of state education dollars. Governor Pataki's office issued a statement saying those numbers have since evened out… because state education aid to the city went up under his watch. But education advocates fear without the help of the courts… there's no guarantee it won't drop again. For WNYC I'm Beth Fertig.