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School lawsuit imminent?
Published on -11/10/2009, 7:19 AM
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Special to The Hays Daily News
A decision on filing a new school funding lawsuit could come as early as next month as more school districts statewide join Schools for Fair Funding and pledge to help fund a new court battle.
“Our membership is changing rapidly,” said Fred Kaufman, superintendent of the Hays School District and president of Schools for Fair Funding.
At the beginning of this school year, Kaufman said, the organization had 13 member districts. As of Monday, it had just under 40, with many school boards around the state considering joining at their meetings Monday night.
Among them were the Ell-Saline and Southeast of Saline school boards; Ell-Saline declined to join, while Southeast of Saline’s decision was unavailable late Monday night.
The Wichita School District -- the largest in the state -- also opted to become a full-fledged voting member of the group.
The organization originally was composed of midsize districts, such as Salina.
“It’s not a matter of wealthy districts, or poor districts, or of size,” Kaufman said. “We have very large districts and very small districts. We’re all in the same situation of not having the money to do what we’ve been doing for children.”
New, and different
The fact that Schools for Fair Funding is recruiting districts of all sizes indicates a future lawsuit may be based on different claims.
The 1999 lawsuit rested on two basic claims; that the state did not adequately fund public schools -- and that the money wasn’t fairly distributed, with midsize districts getting less than they needed.
This time, “The notion of equity has kind of dropped by the wayside,” said Wichita attorney Alan Rupe, who represents Schools for Fair Funding.
“One of the arguments before was that enough money wasn’t being provided for the students who needed it the most,” Kaufman said. “That was corrected by the (school funding) formula, and the equity issue has gone away. The adequacy issue hasn’t.”
As a result of the 1999 school funding case -- commonly called the Montoy case -- districts got additional money to fund additional programs for at-risk students, generally identified as poor and minorities.
But, Kaufman noted, cuts to school funding over the past year have especially taken their toll on funding for those at-risk programs.
“When you take $100 per student off the funding base, you’re taking $150 off for an at-risk student,” he said. “It really hurts districts with lots of at-risk students.”
As a result of the Montoy case, the state added close to $1 billion to school funding over the past three years.
Last year, base funding was $4,433 a student and was set to increase to $4,597 for the current school year.
But as tax revenues have declined in the past year, the Legislature and the governor have approved four rounds of cuts to schools and the rest of state government; funding now sits at $4,218 a student. With revenue still declining, more cuts are expected.
“The notion in the original Montoy case, and the Newton School District case 10 years earlier, was equity,” Rupe said. “The midsize school districts’ funding, compared to larger and smaller districts, created a lot of inequity. This will be an issue of adequacy.”
Rupe said it’s also possible that instead of filing a new lawsuit, Schools for Fair Funding might ask the Kansas Supreme Court to simply reopen the Montoy case.
That would be the “faster, quicker, cheaper way,” Rupe said, as a wholly new lawsuit would have to start in district court, and likely work its way through a lengthy appeals process before ending up at the Kansas Supreme Court.
But reopening the Montoy case might not be easy, Rupe said.
“One of the issues is there’s not a lot of precedent for doing that,” he said. “There’s not a mechanism in the appellate procedure to do that.”
There is an example from Arkansas, Rupe said.
Several years ago, the state of Arkansas was also being sued over school funding, and the case was resolved when the legislature there drew up a plan to increase funding over the next three or four years, Rupe said.
“Then about a year later, the legislature reneged, and the court there reopened the case” on its own, he said.
It’ll cost $5 a student
The Hays district last week became one of the first in the state to approve a resolution supporting renewed legal action.
That resolution states a district supports legal action, and that legal action will be taken once districts with a total enrollment of 100,000 students have approved the resolution.
“Not many of our member districts have adopted the resolution,” Kaufman said.
That 100,000-student critical mass is intended to keep the legal costs for individual districts low; if legal action is taken, member districts will be asked to pay $5 a student, up from the $2 a student for membership dues. For Salina, with about 7,200 students, that would be $36,000 a year.
The 1999 Montoy case commenced after districts representing 50,000 students had signed on.
Kaufman said he expects to have enough districts on board by December.
25 comment(s) found
Pay to Play:
11/12/2009Yes pay-to play will happen very soon, but it will be just a token charge to make the tax payers think the school gave up a little something
(Posted by: )
Never thought of that: 11/12/2009
Your 100% right our kids must show birth Certificates to enroll, so that put it 100% on the school to turn away illegals. All I can say with family that works in the education field it is again it's the Unions that is at fault as well as illegals. Also illegal bring our State testing scores way down, that's a proven fact.
(Posted by: Tim)
taxes: 11/12/2009
Hey, I'd be fine with the idea of paying to play for sports. And I definitely think that day is coming very soon. And sorry, I'm no union member or an employee of any school.....just a concerned parent.
(Posted by: Pro-Ed)
To: Pro ed: 11/11/2009
It's easy to tell your a union member...using fear about what will happen to our kids if we don't give in to your demands. You should be ashamed of yourself. What did you union people do because there was no money...take more days out of the school year!
(Posted by: Cares more)
Ain't gotta take-um: 11/11/2009
When I left Hays, as a very young boy,i moved to Denver, I had to show a birth certificate to enroll in school, do illegals?
(Posted by: XXXX)
Pro-ed: 11/11/2009
Also the only person I see crying on here is you. People are fed up with Liberals tax and spend. I pay over $400 a year enrollment fees, what do you pay? Maybe the State need to be charging for sports, Pay to play, A child has a right to an education, but not to pay sports for free in School.
(Posted by: Tim)
taxes: 11/11/2009
Plus, I'm not saying another lawsuit is the way to go. But our legislators were told many years ago what it costs to educate kids, both by an independent study AND by their own legislative study. They are the ones who chose to ignore those facts and keep cutting taxes looking strictly short term. With a little long term thinking, they could have avoided a lot of the mess the state is in right now.
(Posted by: Pro-Ed)
taxes: 11/11/2009
There is no "free ride", never has been. My parents and grandparents paid their taxes when I was in school. I'm paying taxes now while my kids are in school, and will be paying when they're out....that's just the way it works. Don't blame the schools for having to deal with the illegals, they have to educate the kids who show up at their schools. If INS isn't doing their job keeping illegals out, go after them. Plus all the mandates that federal and state governments have imposed but not paid for are making things even tougher. With all these cuts that have been happening, have you heard of any mandates being lifted? I don't think so. Schools are doing more with less, and it's getting to the point where that's not going to be the case. But hey, keep cutting..... don't be crying when kids start falling through the cracks more than they already are.
(Posted by: Pro-Ed)
To Tax-out: 11/11/2009
You hit the nail on the head. I have 4 kids in School and I have to pay a huge enrollment fee every year for each, and they go to public schools. If you think your kids deserve better then enroll them in private School and you pay the bill if you don't want to stop whining. Tax and spend don't work.
(Posted by: Tim)
Re: taxes: 11/11/2009
As i've said before, If you have kids in school you are responsable for their education costs,If it's so important to you why do you always want the tax payer to pay for YOUR kid to go to school and play games. The free ride is over. Everybody pays their own way and the Govenment gets smaller
(Posted by: taxed out)
lawsuit: 11/11/2009
Unbelievable! Why is it so hard to understand that when the well runs dry, IT IS DRY!!! These are people in education that can't do the math!! The comments from the small business owner were right on. We too own a small business and the taxes we already have to pay are huge. Unions are causing the downfall of major corporations, as well as, small businesses. I believe in education for our children and I also believe the students need computers. I have seen first hand how much further ahead my children are compared to other districts in the state and other states. I also realize that I can't afford more taxes and as a business owner, I have to find somewhere to cut back if taxes go up. Most people think it gets passed on to the customer but after a while I won't have any customers because they can't afford to come here. The same will happen to the district.
(Posted by: do the math 0=0)
to Taxes: 11/11/2009
It is clear you either are a teacher or have a job with the education department. The reason your kids are NOT getting the best education is because of teacher Unions who help unfit teacher to keep their jobs and illegals are the next reason. You kick out the teachers Unions and the illegals most Kansas people may agree with you, but we don't have to pay the illegal way. and for old teacher who are just there for a paycheck. You do understand it was the oil companies and greedy unions that started all this down hill motion. NO MORE TAXES!!!!
(Posted by: Tim)
taxes: 11/11/2009
Yes I do have a family, and that's exactly why I'm concerned about the cuts that are happening in education. I want my kids to get the best education possible....Not the best education that our legislators feel they can afford. And to the person who said the last lawsuit dollars went to wages and benefits. Well where do you think it's supposed to go? That's where money goes when they say it needs to go to the classroom. Teachers have got to be compensated well so they stay in education, and so that more young people go into the teaching profession.
(Posted by: Pro-Ed)
They don't get it: 11/10/2009
Maybe this one will make the scene, does free laptop computers sound like anything small right, free lunches, free to illegals,this is going on all over the country,thy lived high on the hog, now they don't want to cinch up the belt. Now you can delete this one to HDN!
(Posted by: XXXX)
Silly Liberals: 11/10/2009
Funny thing about taxing the rich someday they either move or you run out of their money. As said before, kick out the teacher Unions and kick out the illegals.
(Posted by: Tim)
The problem : 11/10/2009
Greedy Unions is the problem. The person who said "what is an extra .10 a gal" it's clear you don't have a family. The tax payers pay enough. Why don't they stop teaching the illegal kids and send them back to where they belong.
(Posted by: Tim)
To taxes: 11/10/2009
That .10 cents a gal. will go straight into the wage & benefit increases just like the last lawsuit $'s went to. These unions running our schools have held the parents & taxpayers hostage by using our children to obtain their exorbitant benefits. They should learn a lesson from the UAW.
(Posted by: sickened by greed)
where will it come from??: 11/10/2009
I am a small business owner ( just myself and a couple part time helpers). I barely make enough money to pay the bills and taxes as it is, and all I see is taxes and costs increasing because of this lawsuit. Where will the money come from? I don't have any to spare as things are and if the taxes go up, all I can do is close my doors as opposed to working for nothing, which is what I am close to now.
(Posted by: broke and frustrated)
taxes: 11/10/2009
We were paying $4/gallon for gas a year ago. Now it's about $2.50. You can't tell me that people can't afford about a .10/gl fuel tax that could go a long ways towards funding schools.
(Posted by: Pro-Ed)
Lawyers & Unions: 11/10/2009
The lawyers & union members will be the only ones to profit...not our kids! Greed is what motivates Kaufman .
(Posted by: )
Great Idea: 11/10/2009
Instead of cutting taxes the last few years in the tune of billions of dollars--leave the taxes the same so that we do have a reserve and that we can properly educate our children.
(Posted by: Fed up)
: 11/10/2009
Using tax payers money to sue tax payers is just wrong. Sorry Freddy but there just ain't no more money you took it all already. Now do your job and manage what money you have, you already get 52% of all taxes -- how much do you think is fair?
(Posted by: )
Come one: 11/10/2009
This isn't a federal case so it can't go to federal court. This is only in Kansas and for Kansas. Besides if they win the money will have to be provided so either we take from other programs or (gasp) we actually raise taxes. Don't give me that crap about not raising taxes in a recession. The only people who need to have taxes raised are the wealthy and if we do it enough we will have the money we need. Time to start paying your fair share and push education
(Posted by: Finally)
Money: 11/10/2009
So what are the school districts going to do if they win? The state has no money to pay them anyway.
(Posted by: Scott)
another waste: 11/10/2009
wasting time and money. the schools are going to have to go all the way to the federal supreme court to get any action, and they will just toss it out. it the schools would just learn how to spend money correctly they might have some at the end of the year, but i guess they aren't that bright yet.(Ell-Saline was though not to waste money on a dumb lawyer)
(Posted by: ksu7)
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