[Vision2020] School facilities lawsuit ruling

[Barrett Schroeder]

After 15 years, we have a decision on this issue and
the State must provide funding for school buildings.  
I don't think this is a surprise.

The timing is interesting, with the legislature convening
on January 9th and a budget surplus. 

I've included the AP article below and you can download 
a PDF of the ruling with this link:

http://www.schroederforsenate.com/SchoolFacilitiesRuling.pdf


Barrett




Supreme Court: State must fund school buildings

The Associated Press
Edition Date: 12-21-2005

The states method of funding schoolhouse construction is unconstitutional,
the Idaho Supreme Court ruled today.

The scathing, 21-page ruling scolds the Legislature for quibbling over the
details of a few crumbling schools while failing to look at the big picture
- that the local bonding system established by lawmakers to pay for school
buildings is insufficient under the Idaho Constitution, leaving many
students without a safe place to learn.

The ruling means the Legislature must come up with a new system for paying
for school construction.

The list of safety concerns and difficulties in getting funds for repairs or
replacements is distressingly long, Justice Linda Copple-Trout wrote for the
majority. The overwhelming evidence not only supports, but compels the
district courts conclusion of law: The funding system in effect in 2001 was
simply inadequate to meet the constitutional mandate to provide a thorough
system of education in a safe environment.

Idaho is the only state that provides no direct support for public school
construction and still requires a two-thirds majority to approve local
construction bonds.

The lawsuit began in 1990, when a group of 22 school districts calling
itself Idaho Schools for Equal Educational Opportunity banded together to
sue the state over public school funding. The class-action lawsuit has
bounced from court to court over the past 15 years, even making it to the
Idaho Supreme Court a handful of times. In 2001, 4th District Judge Deborah
Bail finally ruled the states levy system was unconstitutional, prompting
the state to bring a bevy of issues on appeal to the Supreme Court.

In a 4-1 decision, the high courts ruling today struck down those issues,
stripping the case to a simple question of funding.
In short, the state fails to grasp the relevance of the adage the whole is
greater than the sum of its parts, Copple-Trout wrote.

Idaho Schools for Equal Educational Opportunity is a proper party to bring
the class-action lawsuit, the high court found, and as such is entitled to
show the statewide safety problems that resulted from the states funding
methods. Even though some of the states most damaged schools have been
repaired or replaced since the lawsuit began, the high court ruled that the
repairs did not render the lawsuit moot.

The states pedantic focus on such details as whether it would cost $7
million to build a new school as opposed to the district courts finding of
$10 million distracts from the overwhelming evidence in the record
documenting serious facility and funding problems in the states public
education system, Copple-Trout wrote.

Still, the Supreme Court only ruled that there was a problem, and left the
method of fixing it in the hands of the Legislature.