Judge: Mo. meeting school spending requirement

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A state judge ruled Wednesday that Missouri is exceeding its constitutional requirement for public school spending while dismissing a legal challenge by scores of school districts.

The decision by Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan marked a complete defeat for the suing schools, who claimed Missouri doesn't provide them enough money and distributes that money unfairly.

Callahan rejected most of the schools' arguments in late August.

On Wednesday, he rejected the lone lingering claim that the state fails to meet a requirement of the Missouri Constitution to direct 25 percent of its revenue to public schools.

The judge said the state is meeting that mark under every reasonable calculation method that can be used.

The suing schools are expected to appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court.

"Really nothing has changed from when we filed the initial suit," said Jeffrey Lindsey, the Van Buren school superintendent and chairman of the Committee for Educational Equality, the lead plaintiff on behalf of schools. "We still think the funding is inadequate and it's not equitably distributed. I think that an appeal is on the horizon."

About half of Missouri's 524 public school districts were involved in the lawsuit through two separate coalitions of plaintiffs.

The Jackson School District was one of the schools involved. Dr. Ron Anderson said the district contributed financially to the lawsuit but was not expected to make court appearances. Anderson was not in his office to have access to how much the district has contributed so far.

"There is a huge range [in funding] and there is not enough funding to adequately provide," Anderson said of the current formula. He has not made a decision about the district's involvement in the future if it is appealed again.

During fiscal year 2007, the district received $10.55 million from the state.

The Cape Girardeau School District pulled out of the lawsuit in 2005 when the district began seeing more state money because its classification as a hold-harmless district was dropped. The classification meant its funding was basically frozen for more than a decade due to a high local property tax base.

The change in the formula resulted in an additional $480,000 for the district. During fiscal year 2007, the district received $5.89 million from the state.

Other area districts involved in the Committee for Education Equality include Chaffee, Delta, Dexter, Meadow Heights, Oran, Scott City, Scott County, Sikeston, Woodland and Zalma. The committee filed a lawsuit on behalf of the districts.

Missouri is spending about $2.8 billion in basic aid on public schools this year. Experts for the suing schools had called for spending anywhere from $480 million to $1.3 billion more per year.

But Callahan said the state constitution provides no guarantee of absolute "equity, equality or adequacy in the dollars spent" or in the facilities available from one public school district to another.

He said the only constitutional provision to determine adequate school funding is the threshold of spending 25 percent of state revenue on schools.

After his initial Aug. 29 ruling, Callahan heard additional arguments Sept. 20 on whether the state was meeting that mark. At issue was precisely which revenue and expenditures should be included in the calculation.

Callahan said at the conclusion of that hearing that the state appeared to be meeting the requirement.

"The evidence demonstrated that the state exceeds the 25 percent requirement under every reasonable method" of calculation, Callahan said in Wednesday's final judgment.

Alex Bartlett, the lead attorney for the suing schools, said Callahan's decision was no surprise, given his earlier statements and August ruling.

"It was a loss for the schools," Bartlett said. But "I think the record has been made" for an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Attorney General Jay Nixon's office, which defended the state's school spending method, had no comment beyond noting that the judge ruled for the state on all claims.

Staff writer Lindy Bavolek contributed to this report.