29 regional school districts join funding suit

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Twenty-nine Southeast Missouri school districts have joined a statewide coalition of mostly rural school systems in a planned lawsuit that will seek increased state funding for public education and a fairer distribution of the money.

Scott City School District superintendent Diann Bradshaw said her district is participating in the lawsuit in an attempt ease the growing financial disparity between wealthier and poorer school systems.

"Our students are just as important as other students," Bradshaw said. "They shouldn't be penalized by virtue of where they live."

To date, 147 school districts representing more than 170,000 Missouri students have joined the Committee for Educational Equality, the group pursuing the lawsuit.

Members of the organization, which has been building support for months, voted over the weekend to move forward in suing the state. The lawsuit likely will be filed with the Cole County Circuit Court by the end of the year.

Dr. Shelia Perry, superintendent of the Bloomfield School District, said recent cuts the Missouri Legislature made to education have put many districts, particularly smaller ones like hers, in a financial bind. Though the district was prepared for the spending reduction this year, she said Bloomfield can't continue to absorb hits to its state funding.

"Sometimes I think lawmakers should take a trip down south to see what things are really like," Perry said. "School districts are suffering."

Southeast Missouri districts that have joined the coalition range from some of the region's smallest, such as the 156-student Pemiscot County district, to among the area's largest, including the nearly 4,700-student Poplar Bluff school system.

Administrators with many of those area districts were attending an education conference Monday at the Lake of the Ozarks and couldn't be reached for comment.

Alex Bartlett, the Jefferson City lawyer who will represent the schools, also handled a similar lawsuit a decade ago that prompted the legislature to overhaul the state's formula for distribution of education funds.

Since that time, the budget for the Department of Elementary and Secondary education has grown 85.1 percent to more than $4.55 billion for the current fiscal year. Because of the state's financial problems, however, education spending fell short of "full funding" as defined by the distribution formula during both the current and preceding fiscal years. This year's appropriation was cut by about $100 million from the previous year.

Bartlett said the state isn't living up to its constitutional obligation to provide an adequate free education to Missouri children.

Under the Missouri Constitution, lawmakers must pass appropriations for public schools before approving any other part of the state budget except the payment of public debt. Bartlett said that provision places education as the No. 2 priority in allocating state funds and doesn't just set the procedure for passing budget bills, as some argue.

"There is a duty implicit there that Missouri courts have never defined," Bartlett said.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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