FYI: Supporters of a high-profile lawsuit seeking to force the state to provide more resources to public education began a 150-mile march from New York City to the Court of Appeals in Albany this morning, planning to arrive at the court as the final stage of a decade-long legal battle begins. In 1993, the Campaign for Fiscal Equality sued the state, charging that it had denied students their constitutional right to a “sound, basic education.” A blistering 2001 decision found the state had done just that, but on appeal the state won a reversal that said it was responsible only for giving students the equivalent of an eighth-grade education. The Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, will hear oral arguments on the dispute on May 8. Check out Hakim Hasan’s essay on the CFE case’s importance to the larger national debate over the state of public education in black and Latino neighborhoods, in the current issue of City Limits magazine. [5/1/03]