School Fees Lawsuit Could Change Idaho’s Education Landscape
We first heard from Russel Joki two months ago when he and a group of parents filed a lawsuit against the state and its school districts. Joki says the genesis of the suit came when he registered his grandson at Meridian High School.
“He was charged fees to take a chemistry class, to take a sports medicine class,” he recalls. “He was charged fees to enroll in art classes.”
Then Joki had to pay a fee to register his granddaughters for kindergarten, an experience, Joki says, that’s all too common.
“We’ve received testimony from parents who have gone to register their children in schools, and because they didn’t have the checkbook with them or because they didn’t have cash on hand they were stopped in the registration line and were told they could not register their child until they could come back with the money,” he says. “It’s unconstitutional, it’s unconscionable, and it’s patently wrong when the constitution of the state requires a free public education.”
Joki’s case hinges on an article of Idaho’s constitution that states the legislature has a duty to “establish and maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools.” And it’s those words – like uniform and thorough – that will be debated in this case as they have in past cases. For instance the state Supreme Court ruled in 1970 that it was unconstitutional to charge students for textbooks.
“What’s the equivalent decision 40 years later?” asks Greg Sergienko, a law professor at Concordia University in Boise. “Are lab fees the basics? How about software for computers?”
Sergienko says when Idaho’s Supreme Court ruled on charging for textbooks it said schools could charge fees for extracurricular activities like sports. But they can’t charge fees for education basics. That’s why Sergienko says Joki’s lawsuit could be a game changer.
“I think the time may be ripe for the Idaho Supreme Court to take a look at this precedent of books and say in the 21st century what do schools and the state have to provide free to make for that effective public education,” he says. “And if school districts aren’t doing it then this lawsuit has the potential to change the way they do business.”
At Meridian High School, where this most recent lawsuit began nearly half of the classes require a fee. Most range between $20 and $40. The school’s principal says they’ll work with any student who can’t afford to pay.
Russell Joki and his lawyer want to prove that most districts in the state charge fees for classes. Even schools in Blaine County do. That’s despite the fact that local levies in the Wood River Valley mean that schools are able to spend more than twice the amount per student as Meridian. Mike Chatterton is business manager for the Blaine County school district.
“We have science fees, we have art fees,” Chatterton says. “You know, most of the fees that a typical high school does throughout the state of Idaho.”
He adds fees are not an important source of revenue. But it’s different elsewhere. Meridian High principle Geoff Stands says he wishes he didn’t have to charge fees, but without them he couldn’t offer courses like music, foreign languages, and the job preparation classes his school emphasizes. That’s the risk that comes with this suit says law professor Greg Sergienko. What happens if the courts say schools can’t charge class fees?
“Does that mean we’ll have to reduce the quality of education?” he asks.
Joki believes schools charge fees because they feel they have to. That’s why he’s added a second complaint. The suit now also alleges that the state’s entire system of funding schools violates the constitution.
The state’s Attorney General’s office has asked that the case be thrown out but won’t comment on it. Joki has filed for a summary judgment, asking a judge to rule in his favor without a trial. He says the judge should do that because Idaho’s Supreme Court has already declared the system unconstitutional.
Eight years ago Idaho’s Supreme Court said the legislature was not fulfilling its obligation to fund schools. Thursday on KBSX 91.5's Morning Edition we look back at that case and what this new lawsuit could mean for funding Idaho’s school system.
Why Idaho Is Being Sued Over School Funding When Courts Already Ruled System Must Be Fixed
A group of parents filed a lawsuit inOctober over fees in Idaho schools. They say charging fees for classes like science or art violates the stateconstitution. But to take on the state to change the education system they needed the right lawyer. They found Robert Huntley.
“Well, my first thought was here I go again charging at windmills,” Huntley says. He spent more than 15 years charging at one particular windmill. In 1990 Huntley took a case in which several school districts challenged the constitutionality of Idaho’s school funding mechanism.
He corrects himself. “It isn’t a windmill. It’s a labor of love so to speak.” A labor of love he says, because he didn’t get paid for much of the work he did on that case. And it’s not a windmill because that implies the problems surrounding school funding aren’t real or solvable, a reference to the book Don Quixote.
A mountain might be a better analogy. Huntley’s office walls are covered with pictures of him on mountain climbing trips. You can see a much younger Huntley grinning with Mount Everest looming behind him. The 80 year old long ago gave up climbing physical mountains. But he did succeed in his longest legal summit. He won the case over school funding, several times in fact as it bounced from court to court. One of those courts belonged to district judge Deborah Bail.
“I ruled that the current system for educational funding was unconstitutional,” explains Bail, “in that it did not allow the local districts to fulfill their obligation to provide safe buildings.”
Idaho’s Supreme Court upheld Bail’s ruling in 2005. Huntley, a former state Supreme Court judge himself, says that lawsuit started as a challenge to the entire funding structure. But after years in court it was narrowed to building funds. Huntley says that was easy to prove.
“We had a building in Pocatello where the foundations had eroded away and you climb in the basement and you can climb out through the wall,” he says.
That case wasn’t isolated. In the same time period many states faced similar lawsuits over school funding. The same year as Huntley’s victory in 2005, Montana’s Supreme Court ruled its legislature was not meeting its constitutional requirement to fund schools. A case in Washington State wrapped up earlier this year with a similar decision.
Huntley’s current case began as a challenge to class fees. Now there’s a second complaint which looks a lot like the case Huntley started on in 1990. It’s a broad challenge to the way the state funds schools. Huntley says a new suit is needed because schools are still dangerously underfunded.
“Everyone pretends that Supreme Court Decision in 2005 never happened,” he says, “Yes things have changed. They’ve changed for the worse.”
The head of the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy says the state has cut as much as $300 million in education funding in the last dozen years. Mike Ferguson is not involved with the case, but he has researched school funding since he left his job as the state’s chief economist two years ago.
“It matters a lot where a child lives what kind of resources are available to fund their public education,” Ferguson says.
Ferguson says as the state has cut school funding, voters in local districts have dramatically increased the amount they’ve taxed themselves. Those local levies are based on property taxes. So areas with valuable property have a lot more money to spend.
“The poorer districts that don’t have that resource are finding it nearly impossible to fund a healthy education system,” he says.
Ferguson says from an economist’s perspective the state doesn’t seem to be meeting its constitutional requirement to maintain a “uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools.” That’s the constitutional article the Supreme Court and district judge Deborah Bail said the state was violating by not providing enough funding for safe schools. Bail says she’s seen no evidence that the problem has been fixed. And she did put a system in place to fix it.
“I had appointed a master to survey Idaho schools and then make recommendations as to which schools were in gravest disrepair, and what would be needed to address that,” she says. “And that process began and then was halted.”
Five years ago, the state asked the Supreme Court to toss out Bail’s plan. The court did while reaffirming its 2005 ruling that the system to fund schools was unconstitutional. But the justices said it was not the court’s job to tell the legislature what to do.
Compare that to Montana. When its Supreme Court declared school funding unconstitutional it ordered the state legislature to fix the problem and told them how to do that. Idaho’s justices on the other hand wrote “We are firmly convinced the Legislature will carry out its constitutional duties in good faith and in a timely manner.”
But Robert Huntley says lawmakers won’t fix the problems on their own. “[The court] trusted the legislature would take appropriate action but that trust has been abused.” That’s why, he says, he’s taken this new case challenging the school funding system.
Our efforts to speak with lawmakers about this have so far been unsuccessful. But Wednesday Idaho Governor Butch Otter spoke to a large group about the coming legislative session. Otter took questions afterward and Mike Ferguson asked if Idaho was meeting its constitutional obligation to fund schools. After nearly three minutes talking about connecting rural schools through the internet, Otter finished his response this way.
“I would say, we’re probably not but we’re doing the best job that we can.”
Meanwhile 80 year old Huntley says he probably doesn’t have enough time to fight another lengthy battle. He’s asked a court for a summary judgment: a ruling in his favor without a trial based on the 2005 decision. A district judge could take that up next month. This time Huntley hopes judges won’t leave it to the legislature. He wants the court to craft a system to fix Idaho’s school funding problems.
Idaho Lawmakers Uncertain About School Funding
This week we’ve been following a newlawsuit that alleges Idaho is not meeting its constitutional duty to adequately fund schools. Also this week Governor Butch Otter turned heads when he was asked if the state was living up to the constitution in that area.
“I would say probably not, but we’re doing the best job that we can,” Otter responded.
Idaho’s constitution requires maintenance of a “general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools.” And it gives that job to the legislature. That’s lawmakers like Republican Senator Shawn Keough of Sandpoint, vice chair of the finance committee. Keough says education funding is important to her. We asked her if the legislature is doing its job for schools.
“I’m not one that says you gotta have X amount of money per student and that makes it OK," Keough explained. "I used to think it was black and white, and I don’t think that anymore. So, I don’t know the answer.”
Keough says defining terms like thorough would go a long way to finding the answer. Every time this issue comes up the words of the constitution are scrutinized and debated. And it has come up before.
In 2005 Idaho’s Supreme Court ruled the legislature didn’t pass muster funding safe buildings. We’ve heard from people this week who say lawmakers haven’t fixed that problem. But senate education chair John Goedde, a Republican from Coeur d’Alene, says they’ve made a lot of progress helping local districts replace old buildings.
“Interest forgiveness and even partial principle forgiveness for example.” Goedde says. But he adds Idaho is developing another constitutional funding problem.
“We have allowed districts to supplement what the state is paying them for programs,” he says. “So we’re creating inequity between those that can pass levies and those that can’t.”
In 2006 lawmakers changed the funding structure for schools. They switched it from a property tax to a sales tax and dropped a program to send more money to poor districts. Mike Ferguson with the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy says, since then districts have dramatically increased local tax levies. To show why that’s a problem Ferguson compares two districts, McCall-Donnelly and Snake River near Blackfoot.
“The variation in their funding capacity is 30 to one,” Ferguson says. “That means it would take thirty times more levying to raise the same amount of revenue in the Snake River District as can be raised in the McCall-Donnelly District.”
So McCall-Donnelly has more than twice as much money to spend per student than Snake River because of a modest levy.
Senator John Goedde says he doesn’t know how to fix these inequities because the constitution also requires a balanced budget and the legislature only has so much money to go around.
Copyright 2012 Boise State Public Radio