Montana school advocates seek court answer on funding
A petition filed in the First Judicial District Court, Lewis and Clark County seeks an answer from the State of Montana about whether court mandates pertaining to funding for education have been satisfied. The lawsuit, which has moved through the district court and the State Supreme Court, dates back to April 2004. School districts have been waiting, recently impatiently, for the State to provide relief for financially-ailing school districts. “We won the lawsuit at both levels,” School District 6 Superintendent Michael Nicosia said. “We wanted to file a ‘show cause’ order right after the last legislative session.” However, through the Montana School Boards Association (MSBA), it was decided to wait and see how funding for Fiscal Year 2009 was going to affect school districts. The news was not good. Many districts are facing cuts—in programs, teachers and possibly staff. Referring to the petition, Nicosia said, “Our membership told us it was time to move.” Named as plaintiffs in the court filing are several school districts, MSBA, Montana Rural Education Association and School Administrators of Montana. The State of Montana is listed as the defendant. The court must now determine whether or not the State has complied with the mandate, which included the establishment of a new funding formula by July 1, 2007. “There is not a new formula,” Nicosia said. “Where we find ourselves, three years after the dust clears from the lawsuit, is that we're facing cuts... We've cut a tremendous amount out of our programs in this district and other districts in the state have done the same.” In a nutshell, “We're right back where we were before we filed the lawsuit,” the superintendent said.
The petition states that the plaintiffs “put the State of Montana on notice of its failure to meet its constitutional and statutory obligations by filing their Motion for Supplemental Relief and an Order to Show Cause, dated June 13, 2006.” The district court denied the motion at that time, indicating that it would entertain a similar motion after the 2007 Legislature had met and acted. The filing also asserts said that 40% of school districts in Montana—numbering 170—would need increased voted levies for FY '09 just to maintain current budgets, assuming a 3.5% inflationary growth. More than 28,000 students, or about one-fifth of students in Montana's public schools, are educated in those districts. While acknowledging that there was money from the 2007 Legislature, the bulk of that was earmarked, such as for full-day kindergarten in the Columbia Falls district. Nicosia said that whatever school districts get from the State won't make up for 12 years of under funding. “It's not an ongoing commitment to solve the [funding] problem,” Nicosia said. “The will to adequately fund education is not there.” He warns that if funding doesn't come from the State, it will be on the shoulders of local property taxpayers.
Source: Hungry Horse News, 2/7/08, By Joe Sova
[Editor’s Note: Summaries of the 2005 Montana Supreme Court decision and earlier rulings in the case are available below.]
NSBA School Law pages on Columbia Falls Elem. Sch. Dist. No 6 v. Montana