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<DIV id=storyDate-Links><SPAN class=pubDate>Posted on Sun, Nov. 15,
2009</SPAN></DIV>
<H1
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; LINE-HEIGHT: 29px; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; LETTER-SPACING: -2px; FONT-SIZE: 29px; PADDING-TOP: 0px"
id=storyTitle>Schools: Lawsuit better than cuts</H1>
<H2
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 20px; MARGIN: 10px 0px 5px; LETTER-SPACING: -1px; FONT-SIZE: 20px"
id=sub_headline></H2><SPAN id=byLine>BY LORI YOUNT AND JEANNINE
KORANDA</SPAN><BR><SPAN id=creditline>The Wichita Eagle</SPAN>
<DIV id=storyBody>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">Schools are gearing up for a legal battle against
state legislators — a battle that lawmakers say Kansans can't afford. A
coalition of 57 districts met last week to discuss suing the state because of
cuts to education funding that they said could leave schools short on money for
years to come.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">The Schools for Fair Funding coalition, which has
recruited 44 members since July, said it wants to encourage even more districts
to join before they meet in December, when it could decide to take legal
action.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">"They see (litigation) as the lesser of two evils,"
said John Robb, who has served as the lead attorney for Schools for Fair Funding
since 2006. "It's better than the other options. They could take budget cuts,
harming kids, or stand up for their rights in court."</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">More than half of the state's budget goes to public
schools, which have weathered two rounds of budget cuts since January.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">Districts say they are owed another $100 million
this school year because of an increase in enrollment and an increase in
low-income students. But the state may withhold that money because of the budget
shortfall.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">A decision by the governor is expected in the next
10 days as the state tries to balance the budget with dismal tax revenue, Robb
said.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">A lawsuit — or threat of one — won't provide
short-term relief to schools during a recession, legislators said.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">"It's just not the time when people are hurting to
take our tax dollars and file a lawsuit in the court just because they don't get
their way in the Legislature, because we are doing our best," said Sen. Susan
Wagle, R-Wichita, who sits on the Senate Education Committee.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">A lawsuit proved successful for Schools For Fair
Funding the first time around, though.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">As a result of the lawsuit, the state has put $600
million more into kindergarten through 12th-grade education since 2005.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">With the economic downturn, that was cut by $135
million in the current budget, Wagle said.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">But school leaders said it's not about the economy.
It's about holding the state to a long-term commitment to funding schools.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">K-12 education should be the state's first
priority, they say, even if it means raising taxes.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px"><STRONG><SPAN class=subhead>Juggling budget
cuts</SPAN></STRONG></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">Lawmakers have to juggle several details when
considering the budget, including the potential for another lawsuit and making
sure the state does not drop below 2006 funding levels and lose federal recovery
act dollars, said Sen. Jean Schodorf, R-Wichita, chairwoman of the Senate
Education Committee.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">But at the end of the session in May, the
Legislature had to pass a balanced budget. Cuts by the Legislature and later the
governor resulted in a $135 million cut to education this year.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">"I am sorry that schools districts are thinking
about suing the state again, because certainly we did not cause the recession,
and we did not want to cut education," Schodorf said.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">She said she was aware of the cuts schools had
already made, including 3,000 jobs lost statewide.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">Those reductions are coming as people in the
private sector also are losing their jobs and their health insurance and looking
at an uncertain future, she said. In that context the answer isn't increasing
taxes.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">"We have to consider that it would be very
difficult on taxpayers who are barely making it to shoulder extra taxes,"
Schodorf said.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">The state should have made room in the budget to
fund education before times got rough, and it should make sure schools aren't as
susceptible to cuts, school leaders said. The state constitution makes it the
state's job to fund education, said Robb, the attorney for Schools for Fair
Funding.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">"The Legislature did not fund what they said it
would do," Robb said. "It's not caused solely by the economy."</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">When legislators passed a three-year agreement to
increase school funding in 2006, Robb said, they knew they wouldn't be able to
pay everything the state owed schools in 2009.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">Instead of making provisions for that payment, the
Legislature has cut taxes by about $180 million since 2005, Robb said.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">Schodorf said both the tax breaks and additional
education money were good ideas when the state budget was flush.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">"There are going to be a couple of lean years...
eventually it will come back and education funding will be better," she
said.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px"><STRONG><SPAN class=subhead>Focus: educating
kids</SPAN></STRONG></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">Districts said they aren't sure how to keep cutting
the budget without laying off teachers because salaries make up the vast
majority of a school district's budget.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">Wichita superintendent John Allison said the
promise of more money in the 2005 agreement was "basically ignored," along with
the state constitution that requires state government to establish — and fund —
public schools.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">"This is a statewide economic issue," he said.
"We're looking long-term at attracting and retaining business — when folks look
at where they want to live."</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">Education of future workers shouldn't suffer
because a recession lowers tax revenue, Allison said.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">"It's key to our viability... long-term," he said.
"It has not always been the priority."</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">Recommendations released last week by a legislative
commission charged with studying school funding called education "the single
most important function provided by the state government."</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">Members of the 2010 Commission, including former
lawmakers and educators, specifically recommended the state increase property
taxes to raise more revenue to fund education. The draft of recommendations
stated that lower taxes won't help the economy in the long run if education
suffers.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">More education money has a direct correlation to
higher test scores, especially for low-income students, school leaders said. A 1
percent increase in district performance is associated with a 0.83 percent
increase in spending, according to a 2006 legislative post-audit report.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">Schodorf doesn't dispute that.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">"That's not the question. It's getting through a
tough time and picking up the pieces and going forward," Schodorf said.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px"><STRONG><SPAN class=subhead>Backlash to
lawsuit?</SPAN></STRONG></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">Because of prior budget cuts, and with school
boards anticipating more, many Kansas Association of School Board members have
been asking whether they should join a future lawsuit over school funding.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">For now the association has left the decision up to
local districts, said KASB lobbyist Mark Tallman.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">He warned that a lawsuit filed this year is not
guaranteed to provide immediate relief to school budget woes. The 2005 school
districts' victory started with a 1999 lawsuit.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">But districts also are worried that the cuts won't
affect only the short-term budgets, Tallman said.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">Whichever cuts are made in 2010 and 2011 will be a
permanent part of the state budget in the future because they will impact
per-student state aid, he said.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">"It's one thing to have sort of a temporary
tightening of your belt, but what we are talking about is sort of a permanent
cut locking itself in," he said.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">Tallman said the association has cautioned its
members that a lawsuit could cause a backlash from some lawmakers.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">"There were a number of legislators who were
extremely upset about both the (previous) lawsuit and how the court ruled," he
said.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px"><STRONG><SPAN class=subhead>Lawsuits across
U.S.</SPAN></STRONG></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">School districts in Kansas aren't the only ones
considering lawsuits over school funding.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">Nationwide, there has been a lull the past few
months as schools and their employees waited to see how budget cuts would come
down, said Michael Rebell, executive director of the Access Quality Education
Network.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">His nonprofit organization tracks school-funding
lawsuits, and Rebell said he has led suits against New York state on behalf of
students.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">Forty-five states have been sued over school
funding, and the states lost about two-thirds of the recent cases, he said.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">In response to losing a lawsuit, legislatures
usually construct new ways to calculate school funding formulas or offer
multiyear agreements to pay a certain amount of money, as Kansas did, Rebell
said. A few states raised taxes.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">Plaintiffs, which can be districts, teacher unions,
parents or advocacy groups, usually focus on wording in almost all of the
states' constitutions that make the state responsible for providing public
education to its residents, Rebell said.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">The U.S. Constitution contains no language
guaranteeing the funding of public education.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">Kansas lawmakers spoke of changing the state
constitution after losing the lawsuit in 2005, but Rebell said no state has
changed its constitution to make states less responsible for funding
education.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">"First of all, to get any constitutional amendment
passed is an undertaking," he said, referring to a two-thirds majority approval
by legislators and then a popular vote. "Very few politicians want to stand on
the platform of weakening children's rights."</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px"><STRONG><SPAN class=subhead>Dealing with cuts
now</SPAN></STRONG></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">While considering a years-long fight, schools are
trying to figure out how to absorb a loss of money this school year.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">The Goddard and Maize school districts are
reassembling administrative and resident committees that helped trim their
budgets this summer.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">"This next round of cuts is not going to be as
painless," said Annette Singletary, spokeswoman for Goddard schools. "We will
see how it affects people. Once you've cut all the peripheral, it's very hard to
look at things that don't affect people."</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">The Wichita district cut almost $16 million from
its $620 million budget, just short of eliminating teaching positions. Dozens of
teachers were next on the proposed cut list.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">The state's largest district could have to cut $10
million more if the state doesn't pay for increased costs due to rising
enrollment.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">The district probably won't have to make drastic
cuts this year because it has left positions unfilled and could dip into its
roughly $13 million reserve fund, Allison said.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0.7em 0px">Reach Lori Yount at 316-268-6269 or
lyount@wichitaeagle.com.</P></DIV>
<P>© 2009 Wichita Eagle and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.<SPAN
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