LOCAL EDUCATORS READY FOR NEW SCHOOL FORMULA

Pleased with their win in court Friday, educators say they're ready to give the Missouri General Assembly a chance to revise the state's formula for funding schools.

Cole County Circuit Judge Byron Kinder ruled Friday the formula, which provides $1 billion to Missouri's 538 public school districts, is unconstitutional and ordered the legislature to rewrite it.

The judge gave lawmakers until late August to come up with a new school-funding system.

"The present Missouri school system does not provide `equal opportunity' for each Missouri child as guaranteed by the Missouri Constitution," Kinder said in his ruling.

Bekki Cook, a member of the state Board of Education, technically was on the losing side of the issue.

"But," she said. "I'm very pleased to have lost.

"Judge Kinder has given us what we all knew. In legal terms, he said it is unconstitutional."

Legislative leaders have pledged to write a new formula during this session.

Gov. Mel Carnahan said the ruling "heightens the pressure" on legislators to draw up a new formula.

Cook said: "It seems the governor has really committed to this. He knows we cannot move education forward until we solve this problem.

"The legislature is now forced to come up with an answer," Cook said. "I'm very hopeful they will all reach a compromise attitude and come up with an answer. Hopefully by the end of February they will have reached an agreement on a formula."

Cook said legislators have hired a consultant from California to create new software to allow them to pump in different numbers and get a quick readout on how it will affect each school district.

"That has been the problem, the lag time between an idea and finding out how it will affect different schools," she said.

But the governor and legislators have said they must first have clarification from the Missouri Supreme Court about whether equal education opportunities must be given to every child, or whether an equal per-pupil amount must be spent by the state.

Wayne Pressley, superintendent of Chaffee schools, said, "I think it's a positive step in the right direction. I'm certainly willing to wait and see, and I encourage our legislature to come up with and adopt an appropriate and revised measure."

But he wondered if the judge plans to review the new formula before it is implemented.

"In my book there are two things it has to have: a hold-harmless clause and there needs to be adequate funding put into it," Pressley said. "I'm a little concerned that without appropriate funding any new formula may still have some inequities."

The 15-year-old formula was challenged in court by scores of school districts, including many in Southeast Missouri.

In his ruling, Kinder said: "The court finds and concludes that the amount of money available for schools can and does make a difference in the educational opportunities that can be provided to Missouri children."

The state, Kinder wrote, "must provide a child living in a poor school district the same opportunity to receive substantially the same education as a child living in a rich district. Deviations from equality in the distribution of resources are not permissible."

The judge declined to enforce his ruling until 90 days after the legislature's May 14 adjournment.

Kinder said it isn't the court's job to write a new formula.

But in the 35-page ruling, accompanied by 59 pages of charts and other documents, the judge said his conclusions should "be of some assistance as the General Assembly faces its task of addressing the system of school funding in Missouri."

Sikeston Superintendent Robert Buchanan said, "Hey, it's great. We are very pleased with the ruling.

"It's a big win for outstate schools and school districts with less wealth behind each child. We're much farther ahead than I thought we would be at this point."

Buchanan said he was especially pleased the judge said that every child has a right to equal opportunities and that money does make a difference.

"When you compare $2,653 to $9,750 per student, that makes a difference in the type of education the child receives," Buchanan said. "To me, he's indicating there has to be equalization in funding."

But Buchanan said providing equal opportunities for students will not come cheap.

"I think it will take a substantial amount of state money to do that. The key is where does this money come from," he said.

Buchanan too is ready to give the legislature a chance to work out a plan.

"Anything they do is better than what we have now," said Buchanan. "And the judge has set a timetable that should make something available for the beginning of the next school year."

With this victory under their belts, school administrators are waiting on another lawsuit challenging the withholding of state education money to pay federal-court ordered desegregation costs in Kansas City and St. Louis, Buchanan said.

(Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press.)