News

NEW YORK, NY October 11, 2006 —Lawyers for the state faced off with lawyers representing education advocates to argue one more time yesterday before the state's highest court, in the hopes of ending a 13-year-old suit over school aid for New York City.

An attorney for the Campaign for Fiscal Equity told judges on the Court of Appeals in Albany that it's important to speak out when the court's been scorned. He argued that it's time to enforce the orders of 2 lower courts finding the New York City schools are owed at least $4.7 billion annually because of a history of being shortchanged.

The judges questioned the methodology behind that figure yet were equally dubious towards the state's argument that 1.9 billion would be sufficient. Because the governor and the legislature are split on a solution the judges asked the state's attorney, Denise Hartman, WHO she was representing.

Hartman argued that the state has been moving toward complying with the court's 2003 ruling finding the city is owed more school aid and argued against another court order. But one judge on the six member panel cut her off saying, "you can't be moving toward compliance if you're there."