Idaho Lawmakers Back Restructured Finance System

By Meg Sommerfeld

Moving to resolve the questions at the heart of pending lawsuits, the Idaho legislature passed a bill altering the state's school-finance system in the final days of its 1994 session.

The House passed the bill last month on a 50-to-20 vote. It had been approved earlier in the month by the Senate. (See Education Week, March 20, 1994)

More than 40 of Idaho's 113 districts have filed suit against the state, claiming that the finance system is unconstitutional because the state has failed to support a "uniform and thorough'' system of public education as stipulated in its constitution. One group of plaintiffs argues that the state does not provide enough total resources to schools; another group has focused...