The kids weren't buying it. One girl gave the Gov a quiz on the state Constitution. After first noting that the state Constitution provides for "a thorough and efficient system of free public schools," the student noted the school board was likely to make drastic budget cuts. She then asked: "What does it mean if the superintendent and the school board say the budget they approved cannot provide for that thorough and efficient system?"
Wow, I thought, these kids are sharp -- a lot sharper than their governor, it turned out.
The girl had made a point of repeating, as if to a dull student, that in our Constitution the adjectives "thorough and efficient" modify the noun "system." This is a key legal point. For a moment there, I wondered if the kids had been reading the Rutgers Law Journal. I'm thinking of the excellent article by legal scholar Peter Mazzei in which he traced the language back to New Jersey's 1873 constitutional convention, at which time it clearly implied equal distribution of state aid to all school districts.
As for the Gov, he hadn't done his homework. Christie responded that "we have two constitutional issues at conflict here. One is the constitutional obligation to balance and the budget and the other is the constitutional obligation to provide a thorough and efficient education."
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