Petitioners appeal from the final administrative decision of the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education concluding that the School Funding Reform Act, N.J.S.A. 18A:7F-43 to -70, was constitutional as applied to the Lakewood Public School District. Petitioners, parents of children enrolled in the school district, filed an application with the Commissioner in 2014, alleging that Lakewood failed to provide public school students with a thorough and efficient education, as required by the New Jersey Constitution due to insufficient SFRA funding.
After years of litigation, the Commissioner issued a final administrative decision in 2021, finding that the public-school students of Lakewood were not deprived of their constitutional right to a thorough and efficient education. Petitioners appealed, and the Appellate Division reversed in Alcantara v. Allen-Mcmillan, 475 N.J. Super. 58 (App. Div. 2023) (Alcantara I), concluding that the public-school students of Lakewood suffered from an ongoing deprivation of a thorough and efficient education. The Appellate Division remanded the matter for the Commissioner to make additional findings to answer the question: Is the SFRA unconstitutional as applied to the Lakewood Public School District?
On April 1, 2024, after conducting additional fact-finding, the Commissioner issued a final administrative decision concluding that the students' constitutional deprivation found by the Appellate Division in Alcantara I was not due, in significant part, to the SFRA and its implementation. Petitioners again appealed the agency's final decision.
On appeal, the Appellate Division, applying the well-settled agency deferential standard of review to its consideration of the Commissioner's final decision, concluded there was ample support in the record to conclude that the SFRA is not unconstitutional as it is applied to the Lakewood Public School District, and affirmed the final administrative decision.