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The Cost of Educational Finance Suits

By Justin Bathon

At any one time across the U.S. there are around 10 educational finance lawsuits at play. These lawsuits typically involve an entity attempting to sue the state to provide more adequate or equitable funding of the public education system. While I try to keep up with many of them, I don't note all of them on the blog. To see what is going on in your state, you can check this site maintained by Columbia University.

Anyway, I was reading about the ongoing Missouri litigation this morning and I came across a striking number. Here is the quote from the Columbia Tribune:

"We continue to believe the current school funding system and level of funding deprives children of their fundamental right to a quality education," CEE Chairman Jeff Lindsey, superintendent of Van Buren schools, said in a prepared statement.

Lindsey told the Tribune that the CEE board vote was unanimous. The board includes Columbia Public Schools Superintendent Phyllis Chase.

The Columbia district is a plaintiff in the lawsuit and has spent more than $81,000 on the litigation to date. Board members are expected to decide at the Nov. 12 meeting whether the district will remain part of the suit. The court battle has cost taxpayers statewide more than $4.6 million so far.

Columbia Board of Education Vice President Darin Preis said this morning he supports being part of the appeal.

"We haven?t talked about this as a board, but, personally, I think it?s a good idea to continue," he said. "We need to be part of the solution."

A more equitable funding system would not hurt Columbia if overall education funding were increased, Preis said. "If we try to spread the current pot, it could be damaging. But I would say there?s not enough money in the pot right now," he said.

"I?m concerned about" the expense of the suit, Preis said, "but I think sometimes it costs to do the right thing."

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The cost of the lawsuit so far has been 4.6 million dollars? Compared to the roughly 2.7 billion that Missouri is spending on public schools, this number is quite small. But, it does still stand out to the general public and some in Missouri are calling on the districts to stop the lawsuit because of the high cost. I am not going to address the merits of the case, but consider the amount of money that could be saved if the schools and the legislature simply worked together more.

Full post as published by Edjurist on November 05, 2007 (boomark / email).