Missouri begins defense of school funding plan

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The state began its defense of the way it pays for public schools Thursday, with a key legislator who crafted the spending plan justifying its design.

About half the state's 524 school districts sued the state three years ago, claiming Missouri does not spend enough on education and does not divide the money fairly. Since the suit was filed, legislators rewrote the formula for distributing money to schools, but schools weren't satisfied and continued with the litigation.

The trial in Cole County Circuit Court has been under way for five weeks, and so far the districts have been making their case, with school officials and school finance experts testifying that Missouri should be spending hundreds of millions of dollars more on schools.

Missouri currently spends about $2.7 billion in basic aid for schools. The formula is expected to add about $846 million to what the state was spending under the old formula once it's fully phased in, which isn't expected to occur until the 2012-2013 school year.

Senate Majority Leader Charlie Shields, who crafted the new funding formula passed in 2005, told the court Thursday that phasing the new plan in over several years makes sense.

"There are significant resources required," said Shields, R-St. Joseph. "To do that all at once would be almost fiscally impossible."

However, the suing school districts' witnesses have called for immediate additional funding of anywhere from $480 million to $1.3 billion a year, with more needed to account for inflation in the future.

Shields also discussed the thoughts behind and function of the new plan, which sets a target amount per child based on spending by districts that scored highest on a state education report. That report includes both districts with strong academic performance and those making improvement, one of the criticisms of the suing schools. The current spending target is $6,117 per child, and that figure will be adjusted every two years.

Shields also noted that while many other states have changed their school funding plans only under court order, Missouri lawmakers acted before the case went to trial.

"At this point we hadn't had any judge tell us to pass a new foundation formula," he told Circuit Judge Richard Callahan.

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Case is Committee for Educational Equality v. State of Missouri, 04CV323022.

On the Net:

Case tracking: http://www.courts.mo.gov/casenet/base/welcome.do