[Vision2020] School facilities lawsuit ruling

[Art Deco]

Wow!
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Barrett Schroeder" <Barrett at hideandfur.com>
To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 2:31 PM
Subject: [Vision2020] School facilities lawsuit ruling


> After 15 years, we have a decision on this issue and
> the State must provide funding for school buildings.
> I don't think this is a surprise.
>
> The timing is interesting, with the legislature convening
> on January 9th and a budget surplus.
>
> I've included the AP article below and you can download
> a PDF of the ruling with this link:
>
> http://www.schroederforsenate.com/SchoolFacilitiesRuling.pdf
>
>
> Barrett
>
>
>
>
> Supreme Court: State must fund school buildings
>
> The Associated Press
> Edition Date: 12-21-2005
>
> The states method of funding schoolhouse construction is unconstitutional,
> the Idaho Supreme Court ruled today.
>
> The scathing, 21-page ruling scolds the Legislature for quibbling over the
> details of a few crumbling schools while failing to look at the big 
> picture
> - that the local bonding system established by lawmakers to pay for school
> buildings is insufficient under the Idaho Constitution, leaving many
> students without a safe place to learn.
>
> The ruling means the Legislature must come up with a new system for paying
> for school construction.
>
> The list of safety concerns and difficulties in getting funds for repairs 
> or
> replacements is distressingly long, Justice Linda Copple-Trout wrote for 
> the
> majority. The overwhelming evidence not only supports, but compels the
> district courts conclusion of law: The funding system in effect in 2001 
> was
> simply inadequate to meet the constitutional mandate to provide a thorough
> system of education in a safe environment.
>
> Idaho is the only state that provides no direct support for public school
> construction and still requires a two-thirds majority to approve local
> construction bonds.
>
> The lawsuit began in 1990, when a group of 22 school districts calling
> itself Idaho Schools for Equal Educational Opportunity banded together to
> sue the state over public school funding. The class-action lawsuit has
> bounced from court to court over the past 15 years, even making it to the
> Idaho Supreme Court a handful of times. In 2001, 4th District Judge 
> Deborah
> Bail finally ruled the states levy system was unconstitutional, prompting
> the state to bring a bevy of issues on appeal to the Supreme Court.
>
> In a 4-1 decision, the high courts ruling today struck down those issues,
> stripping the case to a simple question of funding.
> In short, the state fails to grasp the relevance of the adage the whole is
> greater than the sum of its parts, Copple-Trout wrote.
>
> Idaho Schools for Equal Educational Opportunity is a proper party to bring
> the class-action lawsuit, the high court found, and as such is entitled to
> show the statewide safety problems that resulted from the states funding
> methods. Even though some of the states most damaged schools have been
> repaired or replaced since the lawsuit began, the high court ruled that 
> the
> repairs did not render the lawsuit moot.
>
> The states pedantic focus on such details as whether it would cost $7
> million to build a new school as opposed to the district courts finding of
> $10 million distracts from the overwhelming evidence in the record
> documenting serious facility and funding problems in the states public
> education system, Copple-Trout wrote.
>
> Still, the Supreme Court only ruled that there was a problem, and left the
> method of fixing it in the hands of the Legislature.
>
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