School officals talk of lawsuit as funding gap widens

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Concerned over growing inequities in school funding, inequities that were supposed to have been solved with Senate Bill 380 10 years ago, 17 superintendents and other school administrators met with State Sen. Bill Foster and State Rep. Gayle Kingery last week. The possibility of a lawsuit came up, but the discussion centered more on what small districts will be facing if their financial situation doesn't improve soon.

In the decade since SB 380 was enacted, the gap between districts with wealth and smaller, less wealthy districts has widened. According to figures provided by Naylor superintendent Steve Cookson, the districts that have the least amount of local support per child are in Southeast Missouri, with four of the last five in Ripley County.

Ripley County's Lone Star School District is lowest with $629.28 of local effort per student. At the other end of the spectrum is Clayton in the St. Louis area with a per-student local effort of $12,453.33.

If Gov. Bob Holden's proposed education cuts go through, the costs to the Lone Star District would be $296.83 per pupil; Clayton would lose $1.40.

Lack of equity

Whatever equity SB 380 provided 10 years ago is no longer there, and administrators are concerned that the state is not meeting its Constitutional mandate to provide first for public education and guarantee all children have an equal educational opportunity.

Lone Star, Naylor, Winona, East Carter -- all small, rural school districts -- get most of their money from federal or state funding. Wealthier districts like Clayton, with a larger property-tax base, won't lose as much with budget cuts. But they get more state aid because the school foundation formula is driven by the amount of property taxes a school district collects.

When SB 380 went into effect, according to figures from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education that Cookson provided, a minimum $2.75 per $100 valuation property-tax rate was established. School districts that were already taxing over the $4.60 maximum were not required to change their rates; they were instead called "hold-harmless" schools and were allowed to claim the same amount of state aid from the foundation formula they had in 1992-93. As a result, these districts collect more in state aid than they would if they followed the formula like other districts.

"The term for the rest of us," Cookson said, "is held helpless."

Because the foundation formula is not fully funded -- it's not certain if it's at 90 or 95 percent -- small districts have already taken one direct hit; Cookson said Naylor lost $40,000 from the formula not being fully funded. Holden's proposed cuts in education will be another hit. And that's just for 2003. The legislature is looking at bigger losses for 2004.

The Winona district has a $670 per student local effort, said superintendent Michael Green, and gets $5,843 from the state per student. It is accredited with distinction, and "has earned every commendation the state department can give us," Green said. "Still Clayton has twice as much money without state or federal money."

To get equity and adequacy through SB 380 in the early 1990s, 385 school districts across the state filed a suit and each pledged $5,000 to pay for it.

The legislation was supposed to be revisited by lawmakers and the governor, Green said.

Green told the assembled superintendents at a meeting last week that it didn't seem logical to consider another lawsuit asking for more money when money was tight.

"Since that time I've talked to several superintendents," he said. "There's a lot more growing interest in that idea than I would have imagined. I know there are rumblings in southwest Missouri. I don't think it would be hard to get it going and get enough people pledging to put money into the suit."

Cookson said other states, notably Ohio, Arkansas, and Kentucky, have recently filed equity suits which went to the respective Supreme Courts and were upheld.