Suburbs Challenge School Funding Formula in R.I.

By Jeff Archer

For the second time this decade, Rhode Island has been called to court to defend the way it dispenses school aid. But this time around, the challenge has come from a very different set of litigants.

Most of the 12 municipalities and school districts that last month filed a lawsuit challenging the Ocean State's school finance system are neither among the state's poorest nor its most urban.

Instead, middle-income, suburban cities and towns are arguing that the state's attempts to resolve funding inequities across Rhode Island have left them shouldering...