Ruling in Kentucky school funding adequacy lawsuit could come shortly

The new Frankfort judge overseeing a lawsuit challenging the adequacy of elementary and secondary education funding by the General Assembly may issue a ruling in the case before the end of the month.

On Sept. 15, Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate told both parties in the lawsuit -- 162 Kentucky districts suing as the Council for Better Education (CBE) and the two top leaders of the state House and Senate -- he hoped to issue an opinion on the motions for summary judgment within 90 days, a timetable that would conclude next Friday, Dec. 15.

Marion County Superintendent and CBE President Roger Marcum told the state's superintendents Tuesday that " I hope within the next week or so, you might get an e-mail from me with some good news," adding that "nothing significant has happened in the case since the September hearing.  I know that's not what you want to hear and I'm anxious to know what the next step in the case will be."

At that time, lawyers for Speaker of the House Jody Richards and Senate President David Williams asked that the case be dismissed on one old and another new claim, Marcum said at the closing session of the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents' conference in Louisville.

"The defendants largely repeated what we've heard in the past that the suit violates the separation of powers between courts and the legislative branch," he said.  "They also added an argument that the cost studies that have been done thus far (by a CBE consultant and by the Department of Education) are junk science."

The CBE asked Judge Wingate -- who assumed the case in July following the retirement of former Franklin Circuit Judge William Graham -- to order the legislature to conduct its own study of whether K-12 funding is adequate.

"Once the legislative defendants determined what those actual costs would be, we would then know if the case could be resolved, or if we would need to go to trial," Marcum said.

The lawsuit, filed in September 2003, challenges the constitutionality of the adequacy of state funding appropriated by the General Assembly in the 2001-2002 and 2003-2004 fiscal years.  The districts participating in the litigation have been assessed a per-student fee three times to defray the legal costs.

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