Updating '82 Ruling, Judge Orders W.Va. Funding Plan

In a case of school finance deja vu, a special judge in West Virginia has updated a monumental 1982 state court ruling on educational equity and given the legislature a year to draft a plan to equalize funding between poor and wealthy county school districts.

In an April 3 decision, retired Cabell County Circuit Judge Dan Robinson, who was appointed by the state supreme court to review the state's school finance system, echoed the ruling 15 years ago that found that the system violated the state constitution's requirement for a "thorough and efficient system of free schools."

Today, about 40 of the state's 55 counties raise property-tax revenue above the state's mandated level, subsidizing school salaries, programs, and facilities. But property-poor counties cannot generate those extra funds, causing the financial disparities between rich and...