School funding suit threatened again

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Facing the prospect of a cut in state funding, some school districts are laying the groundwork for a new lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Missouri's school funding efforts.

The drive for a new legal challenge is backed by two of the same people who successfully sued the state more than a decade ago.

"We are in worse shape today then we were then," said Gene Oakley, who as superintendent of the Greenville School District led a 1990 lawsuit against the state's school funding method.

Oakley, now presiding commissioner of Carter County, was joined at a Capitol news conference Monday by Jefferson City lawyer Alex Bartlett, who handled the 1990 case and has been consulted by several superintendent groups about another lawsuit.

Bartlett, who has not been hired by the schools, said he expects a lawsuit before the end of the year.

Added Oakley: "I have no doubts that a lawsuit is coming, hopefully in the next few months."

Their first lawsuit led to a 1993 ruling by Cole County Circuit Judge Byron Kinder that Missouri's school funding method was unconstitutional.

Legislators responded that year by passing a bill backed by new Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan that rewrote Missouri's school funding formula and infused it with new taxes.

Missouri still uses that formula, which considers such factors as local property values, property tax rates and student enrollment to determine how much each school district should receive from the state. The intent is to create equity among districts, with poorer districts receiving more state funding than wealthier ones.

Public schools received more than $2 billion in basic state aid this year. But because of state budget troubles, the aid fell short of the full amount called for under the formula.

The Missouri Senate last week passed a proposed 2003-2004 budget that could cut $275 million from the current funding level for basic state aid to schools. That could create as much as a $520 million gap between the state's funding and the amount called for by the formula.

Because of the way the formula is written, funding cuts fall disproportionately on poorer districts that depend more heavily on state aid, Bartlett said.

Focus on inequity

Any new lawsuit likely would focus on the inequity of funding among school districts. A report two weeks ago by State Auditor Claire McCaskill found that school funding is less equitable now than a decade ago.

The Clayton School District, for example, had total expenditures of $13,748 per pupil last school year -- due largely to local tax revenue. The McDonald County School District, by comparison, spent a total $4,561 per pupil -- the lowest amount in the state.

Bartlett said any lawsuit also was likely to focus on the adequacy of state school funding -- a measure also being used in challenges to state education funding in other states, said Steve Smith, a school funding specialist for the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Education funding lawsuits are pending in about 20 states, Smith said.

Adequate funding arguments typically use state academic achievement standards -- or some other measure -- to show that some students aren't meeting state objectives and that schools need more money to help them reach those goals.