Press
Don't rush state to court
Before getting into a costly legal battle, local officials should try to
negotiate a better deal on school funding
Commercial
Appeal
August 24, 2008
Who says the local economy is lousy?
If you're a lawyer who specializes in lawsuits over education funding,
Shelby County is a pretty happening place to be these days.
A legal battle between Memphis City Schools and the Memphis City Council
over funding obligations has been raging for weeks.
Then a new wrinkle developed last week, when County Commissioner Mike Ritz
suggested that the county file a lawsuit against the state to get more money
for both MCS and Shelby County Schools.
According to Ritz, the state isn't living up to its responsibilities to fund
the city and county school districts based on their ability to pay.
The state doles out education dollars based on a formula that takes into
account a local government's assessed property values, sales tax revenues
and other factors. After crunching some numbers, Ritz has concluded that
Shelby County isn't getting as much state funding as smaller counties under
that model.
Ritz said Shelby County's funding for the two local school districts
exceeded state funding by more than $90 million in 2005 and $145 million in
2006 -- while in most counties, the state pays the greater share.
All of what Ritz says may be true. He's apparently spent a lot of time
collecting and analyzing the data.
However, some of his fellow commissioners believe that suing the state
should be considered a last resort.
Ritz's colleagues are right, at least in the short term. Rather than rush
into court, it would make sense to first try to use the statistics Ritz has
compiled as ammunition to lobby state legislators and education officials
for more money in the future.
Rachel Woods, a spokeswoman for the state's department of education, said
the state's funding formula was recently adjusted to provide more money to
districts with greater numbers of at-risk kids.
As a result of that adjustment, Woods said MCS will receive $421.6 million
from the state this year, up from $310.9 million in the 2003-04 budget year.
That doesn't diminish the argument Ritz is making, though. If there are
inequities in the system, they still need to be corrected.
In any case, it's nice to see that the tiff between MCS and the council
seems to have spurred a much broader discussion about school funding.
Commissioner Mike Carpenter has made significant contributions to that
discussion by organizing a series of meetings with teachers, parents, school
administrators, elected officials and other interested parties. Based on
those meetings, Carpenter came up with a list of proposed recommendations,
which he unveiled last week.
Those recommendations include a shift to a "single source" system, in which
county government would assume responsibility for all local funding of the
two school districts.
If adopted, that could effectively settle the main issue MCS and the council
are fighting over in court.
However, such a shift wouldn't eliminate the need for state funding to
support the two local districts.
So Ritz's arguments are worth pursuing.
Although maybe not quite as forcefully as he's suggested. At least not yet.
