"Abbott v Burke"

According to a report in the New York Times in February 2002, “Abbott v. Burke may be the most significant education case since the Supreme Court’s desegregation ruling nearly 50 years ago.” Another article was also published in New Jersey Lawyer in October 2001 stating, “Abbott is one of the most remarkable and successful efforts by any court in the nation to cut an educational break for kids from poor families and generally minority-dominated urban neighborhoods.”
In the Abbott v. Burke case the Education Law Center (ELC) in Newark, NJ, served as attorneys for the plaintiff-class of over 300,000 school children and 60,000 preschoolers who were from predominately low-income and minority students who attended schools in 31 poor urban communities across New Jersey. The New Jersey Supreme Court in the landmark rulings, Abbott IV (1997) and Abbott V (1998), ordered a set of education programs and reforms to be the most fair and just in the nation – the “Abbott education adequacy”. The goal of these programs is “to give every child the opportunity to attain his or her own place as a contributing member in society with the ability to compete with other citizens and to succeed