Board of Educ. of the County of Kanawha v. W. Va. Bd. of Educ., No. 33081 (W.Va. Dec. 4, 2006)
The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia ruled in December that the state’s school funding system violates the state constitution’s equal protection provision to the extent it fails to adjust the state’s share of funding for those school districts that are required by state law to divert a part of locally raised revenues to non-school purposes. West Virginia’s school financing formula calculates a total sum required to operate a district’s schools, known as the estimated level of need or "basic foundation program," based on seven categories: professional educators, service personnel, fixed costs, transportation costs, administrative costs, other current expenses and substitute employees, and improvement of instructional programs. The state’s share of the funding is the difference between estimated level of need and the local revenue raised. However, in the case of the Kanawha County, a portion of the local revenue raised is diverted under a special state law for non-school purposes: funding for the county public library. Nonetheless, the state’s share of funding is based on the total amount of local revenue raised, rather than the amount remaining after the funding diversion to the library. The Kanawha County board of education filed suit against the West Virginia Board of Education, alleging this feature of the financing system violates the equal protection clause of the state constitution. A lower court granted the state board’s motion for summary judgment.
The supreme court reversed 3-2, with one justice submitting a concurring opinion and two submitting dissents. The high court concluded that the state financing system "violates equal protection principles because it operates to treat county school boards required by law to provide financial support to non-school purposes less favorably than county school boards with no such requirement." Pointing out that education is a fundamental right under the West Virginia constitution, the court subjected the funding formula to the strict scrutiny test to determine whether it impinged on that fundamental right, rather than to the more lenient rational basis test used by the lower court. Strict scrutiny required the state to show a compelling reason for the disparate treatment, not merely some reasonable explanation. Applying the test to facts of the case, the supreme court found "no compelling reason that justifies treating those school boards differently that are charged by law with applying a portion of their local share to support a non-school purpose such as a public library. Because state law requires some school boards, such as Kanawha County’s, to divert a portion of their local share of revenue to non-school purposes, they have less local tax revenues to expend on public schools. This, in turn, potentially impinges on the school board’s ability to meet its constitutional mandate to "provide a thorough and efficient education to its students." However, in order to the allow the state legislature time to amend the state’s funding scheme, the court deferred entry of a final order and stayed its decision until the beginning of the next fiscal year in July 2007.
Board of Educ. of the County of Kanawha v. W. Va. Bd. of Educ., No. 33081 (W.Va. Dec. 4, 2006)
[Majority opinion]
[Chief Justice Davis’s concurring opinion]
[Justice Albright’s dissenting opinion]
[Justice Starcher’s dissenting opinion]