*1 THE NATURAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DESEGREGATION AND SCHOOL FUNDING LITIGA- TION (FNa)

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2211644West's Education Law ReporterMarch 11, 2004Commentary*1 THE NATURAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DESEGREGATION AND SCHOOL FUNDING LITIGA-TION [FNa]Christine Kiracofe, M.A. [FNaa]Copyright 2004 by West Group – No Claim to Original U.S. Government WorksINTRODUCTION Even before the United States officially came into being, there were education laws on the books in Con-necticut, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. [FN1] Early statesmen such as John Adams, Benjamin Franklin,and Thomas Jefferson believed that education was an essential part of preparing citizens for participating in ademocracy. In a 1779 bill, A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge, Jefferson opined that an edu-cated populace would be better equipped to exercise and protect their civil rights.[FN2]Today, 224 years after Jefferson's bill, education is a state and national priority. The 2001 Digest of Educa-tion Statistics study completed by the National Center for Education Statistics reported that the current expendit-ure per pupil in average daily attendance in the U.S. was $7,628.[FN3] The per–pupil expenditure in 1919–20(after dollars have been equalized to 2001 values) was just $490, and $5,056 in 1980–81. [FN4] Assuming, as isgenerally accepted, that governmental funding reflects shared values, education continues to be a national prior-ity.Despite the emphasis the United States has placed on public education, children, whether because of theirgeographic location, socioeconomic status, race, or gender, have not received equal educational opportunities.For example, there is a body of evidence attesting to the inadequacy of educational facilities for African Americ-an students in the segregated south. Students who attended segregated schools in Turrell, Arkansas in the 1950sand 1960s note the dismal conditions of their schools. For example, textbooks*2 used at all grade levels wereout of date and school furniture was used and worn. The black high school did not offer any foreign languagecourses, and biology classes did not include dissection experience, both of which were commonplace at localwhite schools. Although the black school had a track team, their school did not have a track. Student athletespracticed on a gravel road off–campus, and held “home” track meets at a sister school more than ten miles away.There was no money for extracurricular trips, such as college visits, and the school library was tiny, poorlystocked, and desperately underfunded. [FN5]A wave of desegregation and finance litigation over the following four decades attempted to secure adequate(and to some degree, equalized) educational opportunities for all American children. Now, almost forty yearslater, the dream of equal educational opportunities has yet to be realized. A 2002 description of a 95% Afric-an–American Arkansas school district just an hour and a half away from Turrell highlights this point. TheArkansas Supreme Court, in Lake View v. Huckabee, [FN6] notes that:184 WELR 1 Page 1184 Ed. Law Rep. 1© 2013 Thomson Reuters. No Claim to Orig. US Gov. Works.