Court Orders Reopening Of School Funding Case

The Idaho Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday to reopen a lawsuit accusing the state of failing to provide enough money for public schools.

“It’s fairly exciting news,” said Jerry Keane, a Post Falls school district administrator.

Keane and other North Idaho educators hope the end result will be more state support for school construction as well as more money for maintenance and operations.

Former District Judge Gerald Schroeder late in 1994 ruled a lawsuit started by school districts in 1990 was meaningless because of actions taken by the Idaho Legislature in 1994. Lawmakers voted to pump more state money into public schools, change the school funding formula, and give a new definition of “thoroughness” in public education.

But the Supreme Court, in a 15-page decision written by Justice Cathy Silak, granted the school districts’ appeal from that decision and revived the case.

Despite the Legislature’s 1994 efforts, the court said, it still hasn’t been decided whether Idaho’s public school system meets the need for a “thorough” system under the state constitution.

Deputy Attorney General Michael Gilmore said what comes next is up to the plaintiffs, Idaho Schools for Equal Educational Opportunity, represented by Boise attorney Robert C. Huntley.

“Probably we will focus in large part on the backlog of facilities and capital expenditures funding, which is now somewhere between $700 million and $1 billion,” Huntley said.

“The facilities problem could be solved by about $25 million per year, in a bonding program which would cost Idaho taxpayers less than $25 per person per year.”

That would please Keane, whose school district was one of the original districts involved in the lawsuit.

“We’d like to see at least some matching money to help local taxpayers foot the bill for facilities,” he said.

House Speaker Michael Simpson said he thought that was where the state could be vulnerable, since the Legislature this session rejected several proposals to have the state help local districts with building needs.

Though one measure still remains, Keane is not optimistic that it will pass.

“Maybe we had too many proposals out there, so we couldn’t get any momentum behind any of them,” he said.

Other North Idaho school districts need the state to focus more attention on maintenance and operations funding, not just facilities. In Wallace, for instance, the buildings are adequate, but 16 percent of the school district’s general fund budget comes from an annual supplemental levy, which is an additional tax on property owners.

In December 1994, Schroeder granted the state’s motion to dismiss the case. He ruled that significant changes had occurred that rendered the lawsuit meaningless.

The judge said the 1994 Legislature appropriated $653.3 million in general funding for public schools, an increase of 18 percent and “materially larger than appropriations in the past.”

Schroeder also said lawmakers changed the formula used to distribute state support money, “which may significantly impact the funding of schools.”

After increasing school funding by 18 percent in 1994, last session the increase was about 7 percent and Batt on Wednesday approved next year’s school budget with an increase of 4.5 percent.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = From staff and wire reports Staff writer Susan Drumheller contributed to this report.