Spotlight Q&A: "Thorough and Efficient" EducationA phrase incorporated into the constitution in 1875 proves to have great resonance and relevance to the current round of Abbott v. Burke challenges
Harriet Sepinwall, a professor at St. Elizabeth's College in Morristown, did her doctoral dissertation on the "thorough and efficient" system of education guaranteed by the New Jersey Constitution. Although the phrase was adopted in 1875, discussions about it are anything but dry as dust. In fact, the current Abbott v. Burke challenges turn on the issue of whether the state's public schools are meeting both the letter and the spirit of the law.
Question: How did you get interested in this topic?
Answer: As a doctoral student in the late 1970's and mid-1980's at Rutgers University Graduate School of Education, I was taking a course in the History of American Education. One topic that was a source of concern in schools at the time, and was continually reported in the newspapers, related to state monitoring of what was nicknamed "T & E" (for "thorough and efficient").
I learned a great deal that semester about the history of education. And I was finding out that T & E