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Lake View funding case review put on fast track Thursday, Jan 18, 2007 By Doug Thompson Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The remaining issues in the Lake View school funding case should be identified quickly to give Legislature the option of acting during the current session, parties in the case agreed Wednesday. Attorneys agreed to a Feb. 9 deadline to submit a report to special masters reviewing legislative actions intended to adequately fund public schools. The report is to list what issues are settled and which are still in contention. Special masters Bradley Jesson of Fort Smith and David Newbern of Little Rock met with attorneys in the case Wednesday and said they would hold a hearing on the report 10 days of receiving it and determine then how to proceed with drafting their own report to present to the state Supreme Court. In a 5-2 decision in December, the high court retained jurisdiction in the long-running school funding case and reappointed Jesson and Newbern to review the Legislature's work in a 2006 special session. Lawmakers increased school spending by nearly $200 million over two years during the special session in response to a 2005 court order that declared public school spending inadequate for the 2005-2006 school year. In 2002, the high court declared Arkansas' public school funding inadequate and distributed unfairly. In 2004, the Legislature adopted sweeping academic and financial changes and raised taxes by nearly $400 million to pay for them. The case, first filed by the now-defunct Lake View School District in eastern Arkansas, remains open. The Supreme Court decided in December to retain jurisdiction until May in response to a petition by the Barton-Lexa, Little Rock, Pulaski County Special and Rogers school districts. The special masters said Wednesday that completing their report as quickly as possible would benefit all parties without overstepping the court's instructions not to monitor the work of this year's General Assembly. State Attorney General Dustin McDaniel did not concede that the state had not addressed the court's concerns but said his office would meet with the school districts' lawyers in a telephone conference Jan. 31 and hold follow-up conferences in Little Rock to compile a joint report by Feb. 9. House Speaker Benny Petrus, D-Stuttgart, attended Wednesday's meeting, along with House Education Committee chairman Mike Kenney, R-Siloam Springs, and members of Petrus' staff. Petrus said he had no objection to parties in the lawsuit identifying outstanding issues. But specific legislative solutions would still be up to lawmakers, he said. "I know that there are some who believe the intervenors don't ever want this case to end. I assure you that is not true," David Matthews of Lowell, lawyer for the Rogers district, told the special masters. "We've had enough shouting," Matthews said. "Maybe it's time for some talking." At least five issues remain unresolved, Matthews and other district lawyers said, among them paying for school facilities in growing districts, additional funding for students whose primary language is not English and the quality of school facilities in general. They said questions also remain about local property tax collections and whether federal school appropriations for programs targeting students in poverty can be spent on school operations that are not strictly related to poverty, such as salaries. |
