LAWSUITS MOUNTING OVER CUTS

Out of frustration over lost state revenue, the Southeast Missouri School Superintendents Association has voted to organize a lawsuit against the state challenging its right to take funds from outstate school districts to pay for desegregation costs in St. Louis and Kansas City.

The Sikeston School District has volunteered to be the lead district in the suit. Bob Buchanan, superintendent of schools in Sikeston and secretary/treasurer of the association, explained that one school district will be named because "it is much easier to show a school district is at a disadvantage due to the reduction in state funds rather than a professional association.

"We are not arguing at all with the desegregation court cases in St. Louis and Kansas City," added Buchanan. "We're just saying the funding of one is depriving students in Sikeston and other school districts (of) a quality education."

In July, Gov. John Ashcroft withheld $40 million from the school foundation formula due to projected revenue shortfalls in the new fiscal year. Then on Sept. 5, in response to an Aug. 23 order from U.S. District Judge Russell Clark that the state should pay another $68 million in building costs for the Kansas City School district, Ashcroft warned state agencies of another round of budget cuts Oct. 1. The impact on public schools would be a second withholding of $34.5 million.

Buchanan said if those cuts come about, that will make 8 percent withheld from public schools. Cuts are across the board in all four of the foundation formula funds: the minimum guarantee, transportation, exceptional pupils, and the gifted program.

In the case of the Sikeston district, those cuts amount to $605,000 in lost revenue from what it had anticipated, Buchanan said. He pointed out that the only way schools can make up lost revenue is by passing tax levy increases, something unlikely with today's economic climate and a growing rebellion against tax increases.

Judge Clark, in response to a motion from the state to reconsider his order, issued a temporary stay last Wednesday. Once he rules on that motion, the state could appeal to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals if Clark rejects that request.

In another legal development, the executive board of the Missouri State Teachers Association voted Saturday to pursue a lawsuit against the state on the grounds it has no right to withhold funds from elementary and secondary education because of expenditures for desegregation.

"Our contention is that the state constitution prohibits the state from reducing appropriations to education except, perhaps, in the case of a budget shortfall," explained MSTA Executive Director Kent King. "This is not the result of a revenue shortfall."

MSTA officials stressed that the organization would challenge any further cuts "as vigorously and aggressively as possible."

Buchanan said the association's executive board met with Cape Girardeau attorney Joseph J. Russell last Monday, and then on Friday the superintendents met and voted to proceed with litigation.

Buchanan praised Russell as one of the "more knowledgeable attorneys on school law." Russell is the longtime attorney for the Cape Girardeau Board of Education, the Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents, and a past member of the Cape Girardeau Board of Education.

He pointed out that the Southeast Missouri Association hopes to enlist the support of at least 200 school districts in the state, contributing $500 each toward the cost of the suit. Buchanan said the legal challenge could cost between $75,000 and $100,000 and may take one or two years to settle.

Rebecca Cook of Cape Girardeau, a member of the State Board of Education, said Sunday she did not know enough about the proposed suits to comment on their chances of success.

But she stressed education officials at all levels are concerned by the loss of funding and the impact on their ability to meet the needs of students. Cook added that the General Assembly this year approved an increase of $30 million in state funding for elementary and secondary education, and already with the first round of cuts, education has less money than the previous year.

"It seems to me that the outstate school districts have got to look for whatever they can in the state constitution to protect our schools," declared Cook. "We have a federal judge up there, not elected, who has a job for life, and can decide how much the state is going to spend for Kansas City schools. That is devastating to some of the smaller schools in our area."

Cook noted that even with responsible budgeting, school boards and superintendents are having to deal with shortfalls in money like they have never had to face before.

At the state department of education, Cook said, "we have had a hiring freeze at the department for months and still have had to cut positions. If these latest cuts hold up, we will have to cut more positions, which just makes it real difficult to provide services to school districts."

The state department has projected that 200 of the state's 543 school districts will be in a deficit situation by the end of the current school year.

Buchanan said school districts are in a desperate situation and acknowledged that even if the lawsuits bring some relief, it may come too late for some schools.