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What the court said, and didn't Saturday, Dec 31, 2005 By John Brummett Gov. Mike Huckabee and a few legislators apparently have noticed that the Arkansas Supreme Court did not rule the other day that the Legislature had failed to put enough money into public school operations for the coming school year. The court ruled instead that it had no way of knowing, and, more to the point, the Legislature didn't either, and had best be finding out. The Legislature had committed the fatal flaw of failing to commission a study of what an adequate public education for the coming biennium must comprise and how much money that will take. It's supposed to do that biennially under its own school reform plan adopted the year before, which the Supreme Court had applauded. Legislators skipped the adequacy study prior to their regular session last year because they'd just had one done in that very recent big package of school reforms. They thought they could take a breath, and favor some other things with money. They budgeted no cost-of-living adjustment for public schools, claiming justification because they hadn't yet seen any performance results from the gigantic funding increase for schools the year before, and because they pumped $35 million into the troubled teacher health insurance plan. School districts ran to the Supreme Court to complain that their costs naturally went up from year to year, like everyone else's, and that the Legislature had shortchanged them not a year into supposed school reforms. Legislators thought the Supreme Court wouldn't reopen the case, and that, even if the Supreme Court did, it would cut the Legislature slack since it had done so well so recently for public schools. Legislators were wrong. The court responded by, for some reason, giving the Legislature until next December, nearly halfway into the next school year, to do whatever it determines that it needs to do. That's odd timing. If there's an urgent need to do right by our kids' schooling, it would seem we'd want to get right by the start of the next school year. Not only that, but it had occurred to me that, under this court ruling, the Legislature could hire some kooky right-wing outfit like the Hoover Institute to report as "adequacy" that Arkansas public schools get plenty of money already, too much, in fact, and that nothing will get better for our kids' educations until we have vouchers, unrestrained charter schools and performance pay for teachers. The Legislature could then actually reduce school funding, enact those kooky right-wing pipe dreams and send a copy of the right-wing report over to the Supreme Court with a note asking, "How do you like them apples?" But that would be rash and irresponsible, and I am ashamed to have mentioned it. Legislators do not need any encouragement. Yet there is this: Huckabee told The Associated Press in Little Rock the other day that he sees no need to rush into a special session to pour more money into public schools because it may turn out that the $5,400 per child budgeted for the coming year was enough. Sen. Shane Broadway of Bryant was quoted saying kind of the same thing. Talk about pipe dreams. Another adequacy report is due in September from the same consultants who provided the first one. Here's guessing they will not find that the components of an adequate elementary and secondary education in Arkansas became less expensive in the last few months. Anyway, the court was clear on another financial point: The Legislature did not take nearly a big enough first step on the multibillion dollar task of upgrading substandard school facilities statewide. So, yes, we'll have a special session before December. Fortunately, the state Treasury will have nearly $230 million lying around by the middle of the year, with another $68 million or so expected to accrue in surpluses. Well, I say fortunately. That assumes legislators would be willing to spend this extra cash on court-ordered school improvements instead of street lights and sidewalks and rodeos back home. That's not an entirely safe assumption. ------- John Brummett is a columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. His e-mail address is jbrummett@arkansasnews.com; his telephone number is (501) 374-0699. |
