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Friday, April 21, 2006

Ind. Gov't. - Still more on: ISTA to sue over school funding

"Teachers sue state, alleging inequality: School funding not fair to all children, suit says" is the headline to a story today by Niki Kelly in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. Some quotes:

A battle expected to reach the Indiana Supreme Court began Thursday when the Indiana State Teachers Association officially filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s funding of education as unconstitutional.

The move had been rumored for months, and Indiana joins 45 other states where proponents have sought more money for education.

The lawsuit claims the state’s school funding formula does not provide the resources necessary for all Hoosier schoolchildren to have a fair chance to learn.

Children who have specifically fallen behind are those living in poverty, minorities, kids with disabilities and those trying to learn English as a second language.

The union points to ISTEP+ scores that show a decided achievement gap among these groups.

“The proof is in the pudding. We have too many children who are being unsuccessful in school,” said Michael Weisman, the Boston attorney hired by the teachers association to fight the case.

He went on to say the group isn’t seeking a specific dollar amount. Instead, he wants the state to make an honest assessment of what resources are needed for students to meet the high standards set by the “grown-ups.”

Weisman won a similar challenge in Massachusetts, and said he expects the Indiana case to take years – likely ending at the state Supreme Court level. He did, however, say the plaintiffs are willing to work toward a compromise to avoid a trial. * * *

The technical basis for the challenge is the education clause of the Indiana Constitution, which says knowledge and learning shall be diffused generally through the community and that the General Assembly has a duty to provide a “general and uniform system” of schools.

Teachers’ union executives said they had expected state officials to provide adequate funding after passing rigorous standards and accountability laws in 1999, but the money hasn’t followed.

“We think the only piece that has been left out – and we had hoped that the legislature and the Indiana (Education) Roundtable would have stepped up to the challenge and they have not – is the funding and providing the resources for all children,” said Warren Williams, executive director of the ISTA.

Lesley Stedman Weidenbener of the Louisville Courier Journal reports:
Indiana's school funding system is "arbitrary and not rationally related" to the educational requirements of needy or disabled children, a lawsuit filed yesterday said.

That's a violation of the Indiana Constitution, the suit filed by the Indiana State Teachers Association alleges. * * *

The suit doesn't seek a specific amount of state spending to educate Indiana's 1 million students.

Instead, the association's attorney, Michael Weisman of Boston, said it asks Marion Superior Court to require state officials to determine what funding is necessary to ensure that all students in Indiana achieve to their full potential, regardless of whether they speak English or are poor, in special-education classes or are minorities.

Current funding, he said, is inadequate.

"The state says to children that you have to be successful on the ISTEP (standardized test) and there are no ifs, ands or buts about it," he said.

"The grownups are not held to the same level of accountability," he said. "What we're saying in this case … is that the grownups, the elected branches of government, need to determine what resources are necessary" to help every child succeed.

Nine children and their parents were named plaintiffs in the suit but the association asked that it be certified as a class action, meaning that tens of thousands of children across Indiana would automatically become plaintiffs. * * *

Over several decades, lawsuits challenging school funding have been brought against 45 states, including one in Indiana that was settled.

Since 1989, plaintiffs have won about two-thirds of the school-funding decisions (19 of 29), including landmark cases in Kentucky and Montana, according to ACCESS to Education, a project of the Campaign for Education Equity at Columbia University.

The Council for Better Education, a coalition of Kentucky school districts, successfully sued the state in the mid-1980s, resulting in the Kentucky Supreme Court's 1989 decision declaring the state's education system unconstitutional. The court's ruling led to the passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act in 1990.

But in 2003, the council filed another lawsuit alleging that the General Assembly has not adequately funded education. That suit is pending in Franklin Circuit Court.

Sharlonda L. Waterhouse of the Gary Post-Tribune reports, in a story headed "Education lawsuit joins other states," that:
State supreme courts across the country have ruled that school funding formulas are unconstitutional and inadequate for ensuring quality education.

Litigants suing boards of education might have waited years and endured appeals, but the boons have been plenty, fueling high hopes for a lawsuit filed in Indiana on Thursday.

In Colorado’s Giardano v. State, the state legislature was forced to provide $190 million more in school repairs and construction as part of court settlement to put needy districts on par with others.

In Texas, a 25-year-plus court battle resulted in “Robin Hood” funding policies in which rich districts were forced to share tax money with poorer ones.

Just last year in Arkansas, a court ruling increased school aid by 25 percent, resulting in $400 million more in school tax dollars yearly.

Parties in 45 states have sued boards of education, saying poor and minorities have been disenfranchised.

This week Indiana joined the ranks. * * *

Attorney Michael Weisman had the Hoosier class action complaint stamped with a cause number in Marion Superior Court on Thursday morning. He represents nine sets of children and parents from eight Indiana districts, including a child from Thomas A. Edison Elementary school in Hammond.

At a news conference hosted by the Indiana State Teachers Association, Weisman, joined by a few parents, chided the state for funding inequality: “It is not an option to abandon a whole generation of children ... and say because you’re poor, black, or don’t speak English as a first language, that we’re giving up on you and your future is to flip burgers at McDonald’s,” Weisman said. * * *

Weisman distributed copies of the lawsuit, which emphasizes lows ISTEP scores statewide, as well as low SAT scores and graduation rates. [The ILB is still trying to obtain a copy.]

He plans to argue to the highest court that will listen that such a failure of children is unconstitutional.

Other state cases have hinged on arguments that funds for public schools don’t support the state Constitution’s ideals.

Those lawsuits have traced three main sources of inequity: facilities, range of curriculum and classes offered, and teacher salaries.

In the Indiana complaint, the plaintiffs allege funding for kindergarten and summer programs are uneven across the state. It says money for remediation (tutoring and reteaching) has decreased from $20 million in 2004 to $9 million in 2006.

The complaint calls the Indiana school funding scheme a constitutional violation that is “arbitrary and not rationally related to educational needs.”

It demands a true analysis of how much money is needed to meet state curriculum and mastery of standards.

The lawsuit suggests that children who are impoverished, ethnic, disabled or limited in English proficiency “are not receiving an education that equips them with the knowledge and skills for productive employment, higher education, and responsible (citizenship).”

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 21, 2006 07:40 AM
Posted to Indiana Government