For 15 years, the Idaho Legislature has fiddled while children in many school districts were forced to learn in unsafe or inadequate buildings.

At first, lawmakers made an effort to catalog the amount of money needed to upgrade the state’s school buildings properly but balked when a 1991 survey estimated that $700 million was needed to replace unsafe schools and upgrade others. Afterward, they dug in and fought every attempt to resolve a lawsuit begun in 1990 by 22 school districts that demanded the state fulfill its constitutional mandate to provide a safe environment conducive to learning. Plaintiff districts include Post Falls, Bonner County School District 82, Boundary County and St. Maries.

At times, lawmakers over the years ignored lower-court rulings, appealing a handful of adverse decisions to the Idaho Supreme Court – all of which they lost. In a particularly egregious example of legislative arrogance, the 2003 Legislature ignored practical proposals from a bipartisan task force appointed by Republican Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and Democratic Superintendent of Schools Marilyn Howard to resolve the funding problems. Instead, legislators tried to sidestep their obligation by passing unconstitutional legislation attempting to cancel the lawsuit.

Now, the Idaho Legislature has no wiggle room left.

On Wednesday, the Idaho Supreme Court voted 4-1 to support 4th District Judge Deborah Bail’s 1991 decision that the state’s method of funding schools is unconstitutional. In the 21-page decision, the court spanked lawmakers for quibbling over a few rundown schools and failing to realize that the state’s bonding system was fatally flawed. In 2006, the Legislature’s top priority should be to fix the current system that hamstrings poor school districts by placing the entire burden of school funding on local property taxpayers. North Idaho lawmakers should insist that they do.

The Legislature doesn’t need to start with a new inventory of building needs in search of a way to pass constitutional muster, although one will eventually be needed. Rather, it should revisit the task force recommendations that were dismissed out of hand almost three years ago. The key element in the five-page document calls for the Legislature to pass a constitutional amendment lowering the supermajority needed to pass a school bond election from the draconian two-thirds to 60 percent.

Idaho remains the only state to require a two-thirds supermajority without underwriting school construction costs.

In recent years, foot-dragging Republican legislators have tried to appease various Idaho courts and litigious school districts by offering Band-Aids to fix the massive building problem. Some worked. Seven of the state’s 113 districts, with the worst safety problems, used grants underwritten by a $10 million state subsidy to build schools or make major safety improvements. But the funding problem remains.

Legislators should feel lucky that the Idaho court didn’t order a financial fix for the problem, as courts in other states have done. In their decision, Supreme Court justices said they respect the division of powers. The Legislature should honor that restraint and not force the courts to step in again.