School Boards Group Backs Funding Suit

February 22, 2010

The Associated School Boards of South Dakota wants the Supreme Court to consider disadvantaged students when it hears arguments in an appeal challenging the constitutionality of the state’s school funding system.

The school boards group filed a "friend of the court" brief this month in support of the schools involved in the appeal of Circuit Judge Lori Wilbur’s ruling last April that students are not guaranteed a quality education by the state’s constitution and that the state’s funding system provides an adequate education.

The appeal in the lawsuit, originally brought by a group of parents and the South Dakota Coalition of Schools, was filed last year.

The school boards’ brief said that Judge Wilbur correctly interpreted South Dakota law to mean that all students have a right to a "free and adequate" public education, but "The court nevertheless interpreted and applied that right in a way that makes it virtually meaningless."

Wilbur’s ruling looked at the performance of the average South Dakota student on standardized tests to determine whether the state’s education system provides an adequate education, but the briefing said the judge ignored the circumstances of students in poor or disadvantaged districts by using averages.
"It will meet the needs of most students and is, but our Constitution clearly says ‘all students,’ " said Brian Aust of the school boards group. "(The Supreme Court) is essentially going to interpret what adequate means, we wanted to be able to share our thoughts."

Other lobbying groups have stayed out of it. The Sc hool Administrators of South Dakota has decided to stay neutral on the lawsuit, as some of its members think legislative action is the appropriate method for dealing with funding issues.

"All educators in South Dakota agree that schools are underfunded, but there is disagreement as to how to attain that," said John Pedersen, director of the administrators’ group.
Most of the state’s school boards have expressed support for the lawsuit, according to Scott Abdallah, the lead lawyer for the schools. Ninety-one school boards, about two-thirds of the state’s school boards, have voted in support, most within the past five months.