Rural N.C. schools' lawsuit victory may be hollow; rural Georgia schools' suit on funding going to trial

Rural schools in North Carolina may get no new money even though they won a lawsuit four years ago arguing that the state's education system was unconstitutional because it failed to provide the opportunity for a sound basic education to students in poor, rural counties, reports the News & Observer of Raleigh.

"Legislative leaders said Tuesday there's not enough extra cash on hand to pay $747.9 million," T. Keung Hui writes. "Wake County Superior Court Judge Howard Manning has ordered the state to turn over civil fines that were illegally withheld from the schools for more than nine years. In the order issued Friday, Manning left it to the General Assembly to decide where to come up with the money and over what period." Manning said he didn't have authority to order appropriations. Lawmakers say they will use money from the existing budget for elementary and secondary education.

A lobbyist for one of the plaintiffs, the North Carolina School Boards Association, "said she hopes the school groups can negotiate an infusion of money stretched across several years," Hui reports. "Manning had delayed issuing the order in the hope of a settlement. He noted that the school districts had offered to settle for a smaller amount." (Read more)

The story did not mention the possibility of an appeal. The state Supreme Court upheld the lower court ruling in 2004. For details on the case, see this page from National Access Network, which monitors such cases and says its mission "is to promote meaningful educational opportunities for all children, especially those low-income and minority children currently being denied this opportunity."

School systems in several states have been revamped as the result of such lawsuits. The next trial is likely to be in Georgia, where a Fulton County judge yesterday denied the state's request to dismiss the suit filed by about 50 mostly rural school districts, organized as the Consortium for Adequate School Funding. The trial is set to begin Oct. 21.

"The rural schools group filed the lawsuit in 2004 arguing that small, poor school districts are treated unfairly because they do not raise enough money from local taxes to make up for cuts in state education spending," notes Laura Diamond of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "If the state loses at trial, Georgia could be forced to increase the amount spent on education by more than $1 billion a year and to change the way it distributes money among school districts." (Read more)