Fred G. Burke, architect of sweeping change in public school financing and accountability, died March 11, 2005, in Newton, N.J., from a pulmonary embolism. He was 79.
A graduate of Williams College, Burke earned a doctorate at Princeton in politics. Over the next dozen years he pursued an academic career, penning six books on African affairs, consulting for the United Nations, and directing Peace Corps training in East Africa.
Appointed commissioner of education for Rhode Island in 1971, he oversaw transition there to full state funding of public schools. Stepping into the same role in New Jersey in 1974, he plunged into controversy over financial and evaluative practice in public education. He helped pass a highly contested 1975 law mandating state testing and review of students and teachers.
In the following year, New Jersey's first income tax promised an equalization of aid across school districts. Much to Burke's regret, initial efforts to close the funding gap failed.
Resigning from public service in 1982, he took a senior position at the University of Connecticut and later at the Phelps Stokes Fund. His last book argues for a national education policy.
Burke leaves behind his third wife, Carol Sterling, three sons, and a daughter.