Funding Alert

The September 22 rally organized by OC/OS, with help from the New Jersey Education Organizing Collaborative (NJEOC), just prior to the New Jersey Supreme Court hearing in the latest round of Abbott v. Burke litigation, brought out several hundred Abbott supporters.

Buses came to Trenton from Newark, Paterson, Jersey City, Asbury Park, Camden and Bridgeton, with smaller groups and individuals arriving from around the state and representing NAACP local branches, parent organizations and education advocacy groups.

The rally was emceed by Lauren Wells, NJEOC Project Coordinator. Scheduled speakers included Victoria Scott, a senior at Barringer High School in Newark; Tina Cintron, President of the Statewide Education Organizing Committee; Richard Snyder of Dollar$ and Sense; Daniel Santo Pietro, Executive Director of the Hispanic Directors Association of NJ; Mary Ciccone, managing attorney at NJ Protection & Advocacy, Inc. and member of the NJ Coalition for Special Education Funding Reform; Craig Stanley, former Assemblyman and chair of the Assembly Education Committee; and James Harris, President of the NAACP NJ. A number of "unscheduled" speakers, including parents, grandparents and education organizers, also took the stage to say a few words and lead the crowd in chants.

After the rally, dozens of participants viewed a simultaneous videostream of the Court proceedings in conference rooms in the Richard J. Hughes Justice Complex. Participants watched as Assistant Attorney General Robert J. Gilson, on behalf of the State, and attorney David Sciarra, Executive Director of Education Law Center, on behalf of the Abbott school children, answered the justices questions about the impact of the School Funding Reform Act of 2008 on the Abbott districts.

At the same time, over 100 people who had taken part in the rally visited the Statehouse, where they had hoped to meet informally with several legislators. Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver addressed the group. Other legislators had committed but did not join the group.

View photographs taken at the rally and the Statehouse by Mary Kubik, organizer for the Asbury Park branch of the Statewide Education Organizing Committee (SEOC), the Parent Listening Project. Speakers shown include former Assemblyman Craig Stanley and James E. Harris, President of the New Jersey State Conference of the NAACP. Also pictured is Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver at the Statehouse addressing rally participants.