A Reversal of Fortunes
Why the Courts Have Cooled to Adequacy Lawsuits
Educational adequacy lawsuits have been an important fixture in school finance for almost 20 years, but that era may be drawing to an end. The last two years have seen a dramatic shift in the courts’ attitude toward such lawsuits. The high-water mark for plaintiffs came in early 2005 when, in Kansas, the courts ordered annual K-12 education appropriations increased by over $750 million. Since then, however, the courts have decided adequacy cases in 15 other states. Only in New Hampshire have the plaintiffs had significant success, albeit only in an interim decision requiring the legislature to define adequacy.
In Oklahoma, Indiana, Nebraska, Colorado, Oregon, and Kentucky, the courts ruled that the amount of K-12 education funding is a political question for the legislature, and not the courts, to decide. In Arizona, the courts concluded that the state had no liability for achievement disparities it had not caused. In Texas and Massachusetts, the high courts reversed initial trial-court adequacy decisions in favor of plaintiffs and upheld the adequacy of school funding in each of those states. In Missouri, a trial-court ruling that not more than 25 percent of the “state revenue” is constitutionally required to be spent on education is likely to end the case, at least at the trial-court level. In four other states, the cases were not entirely dismissed, but the relief granted plaintiffs was relatively minor. In South Carolina, the trial court approved only a claim related to early-childhood programs, rejecting plaintiffs’ claims that other education “inputs” were inadequate. In a recent trial in the Wyoming case, the court backed away from prior higher-court rulings that the state fund the “best” education in rejecting most of the plaintiffs’ claims. In Alaska, the trial court held that school funding was adequate, ruling only that more state oversight of some districts was needed, hardly the result plaintiff school...
This article is available to subscribers only.
To keep reading this article and more, subscribe now or purchase this article.
Subscribe to Education Week and Save
Get a full year and save up to 45%!
Viewed
Emailed
Recommended
Commented
- 2 Positions -Associate Superintendent and Chief Academic Officer, and Director of Human of Resources
- Washington County Public Schools, Hagerstown, MD
- Principals
- Prince George's County Public Schools, MD
- Superintendent
- Pinellas County Schools, Pinellas County, FL
- Principal
- Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, Los Angeles, CA
- K-8 Principal
- EdVantages/Performance Academies, Detroit, MI
