District Files Suit Over School Funding (MO)
June 28, 2010
So last week, four Kansas City District residents sued state officials over distributing money from the school foundation formula, after lawmakers reduced the total state-aid appropriation because of lower-than-expected state revenues.
The suit asks the Cole County Circuit Court to order state officials to give the Kansas City, Mo. School District (KCMSD) the additional $2.933 million "to which it is lawfully entitled."
Two main issues are at the root of the lawsuit:
* Lawmakers’ approval of language in the supplemental appropriations bill distributing "at least $23,000,010 for the foundation formula" while ordering the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to "modify the foundation formula phase-in percentages" established when the current formula was approved in 2005.
* Gov. Jay Nixon’s April 13 "signing letter" added to that bill, approving the appropriation, but telling DESE to ignore lawmakers’ instructions on how to spend the school funding money.
DESE told districts in February that reduced revenues would require all districts to receive "proportionally" less money than originally expected under the 2005 law.
But many of the state’s "hold harmless" districts — those with state aid set generally at the 2005-06 school year level becau se the new formula’s calculations would give them even less money — convinced lawmakers to require that they get the same aid level as last year.
The Kansas City district is a hold harmless district, the lawsuit noted several times.
As a hold harmless district, lawyer Lowell Pearson argued in his separate "Suggestions in Support" of the lawsuit, "the distribution formula provided by law directs that KCMSD must receive its minimum payment first."
Although the suit was filed on behalf of Kansas City’s schools, a legal victory likely would help all hold harmless districts — but take more money from the state’s other public school districts.
South Callaway R-2/Mokane Superintendent Mary Lynn Battles had not read the Kansas City case and couldn’t comment on it Wednesday.
But, she said, she can sympathize with the problems other hold harmless districts face on a daily basis.
"When we moved onto the new formula, we knew there was never going to be any growth for those of us who were hold harmless," Battles said. "That, in itself, was distressful. South Callaway has had a strong local tax base, but that too has kind of flat-lined."
Battles intends to monitor the Kansas City case’s progress closely, for any potential implications it might have on her district.
Jefferson City lawyers Pearson, Robert Hess II and Harvey Tettlebaum filed the suit on behalf of four KCMSD residents: Fred Hudgins, Elbert Wiltz, Elisha Verge Jr. and Candice Koba.
The defendants include state Commissioner of Administration Kelvin Simmons, state Treasurer Clint Zweiful, state Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the State Board of Education and all seven of its members.
DESE, the attorney general’s office and the Office of Administration all declined to comment for this story.