State Expert Testifies

On Wednesday, the State called Eric Hanushek of Stanford University’s Hoover Institute as an expert witness. Hanushek is a well-known academic researcher who regularly testifies in school funding cases (at a rate of $375/hr according to his deposition). Hanushek always testifies against increasing funding for schools. He believes that there is little or no connection between school funding and academic performance and argues that school budgets can be cut significantly without affecting the quality of education. For example, he recommends that schools save money by firing teachers whose students get low test scores and increasing class sizes for those that remain.

On Wed., Hanushek testified about these ideas as the State tried to show that more than $1 billion cuts in NJ school aid did not prevent schools from providing a “thorough and efficient” education. He had a tough time making that case. Hanushek has not done any recent research in NJ, and did not know much about the state funding formula, the specific cuts that districts were forced to make this year or the impact those cuts had on schools and students. He was not familiar with the “core content curriculum standards” which define the education that NJ schools are required to deliver. Hanushek acknowledged that he had only spent a few hours looking at data supplied by the NJ Dept. of Education.

The State did get its expert to testify that in his opinion, schools could deliver a “thorough and efficient” education despite the budget cuts. But since he had no specifics and seemed only vaguely familiar with how a “thorough and efficient” education has been defined in NJ, he didn’t seem to help the State’s case very much, especially since in this round, the “burden of proof” is on the State to show that students are still getting what they need to meet state standards.