Other People's Children: The Battle for Justice and Equality in New Jersey's Schools

Raymond Abbott's is just one of the many human stories that have too often been forgotten in the policy battles New Jersey has waged for two generations over equal funding for rich and poor schools. Other People's Children, the first book to tell the story of this decades-long school funding battle, interweaves the public story--an account of legal and political wrangling over laws and money--with the private stories of the inner-city children who were named plaintiffs in the state's two school funding lawsuits, Robinson v. Cahill and Abbott v. Burke. Although these cases have shaped New Jersey's fiscal and political landscape since the 1970s, most recently in legislative arguments over tax reform, the debate has often been too abstract and technical for most citizens to understand. Written in an accessible style and based on dozens of interviews with lawyers, politicians, and the plaintiffs themselves, Other People's Children crystallizes the arguments and clarifies the issues for general readers.

Beyond its implications for New Jersey, this book is an important contribution to the conversations taking place in all states about the nation's responsibility for its poor, and the role of public schools in providing equal opportunities and promising upward mobility for hard-working citizens, regardless of race or class.