The critics got it right: When it comes to urgent school repairs in poor cities, the Christie administration has been sitting on its heels. Now, an administrative law judge

agrees these delays are unacceptable.

Children in the worst neighborhoods depend on the state to fix their crumbling schools because, by law, the 31 urban districts can’t do their own repairs. Yet their buildings remain in shambles, with leaky roofs, mold, broken heating systems and fire alarms and crumbling brick facades, violating their constitutional rights.

The usual whipping post is the Schools Development Authority, which oversees and manages the ultimate work. But the subject of this legal complaint, filed by a Newark-based law group, was the Department of Education — which has primary responsibility for the school facilities program.

Administrative Law Judge Ellen Bass ruled on Dec. 14 that the DOE has taken too long to approve or deny repair requests. “Such a painfully slow process, on its face, defies logic,” she wrote.

Exactly — after all, the state has the capacity to make progress: $100 million has already been approved to pay for these pressing repairs. So why all this stalling?

More than 60 building problems are hazardous to students’ health and safety, according to the complaint. Yet the department dawdled on its decisions for 10 months and little, if any, of the work has been done.

This is symptomatic of a broader problem, a virtual shutdown of the school facilities programs that were ordered by the Supreme Court and set up by the Legislature. When Gov. Christie took office at the beginning of 2010, he halted all school construction, including much-needed repairs.

Sure, there was good reason to re-vamp the process. But in the meantime, the judge ruled, the DOE has failed to move expeditiously on nearly 70 requests for vital repairs. We see the same problem in school construction: Billions of dollars have already been approved for new projects, but few have moved forward.

State Education Commissioner Chris Cerf should accept this ruling and act upon it at once. Because when dilapidated schools such as Trenton Central High are literally falling down around these kids and their teachers, how can we fault them for failing?

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