Opinion ID: 1756151
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Court's Opinion

Text: Two motions have been filed by the Intervenors. The first is a motion to strike the State Defendants' post-Masters' Report brief. Specifically, the motion seeks to strike the State's arguments regarding justiciability and the separation of powers. We deny the motion and discuss the justiciability point raised by the State Defendants below. The second motion filed by the Intervenors asks this court to take judicial notice of certain items filed in federal district court relating to the Pulaski County desegregation case. We decline to do so.
The State Defendants spend much of their time in their post-Masters' Report brief arguing that this court should reverse its previous holding in this case and rule that the adequacy-of-state-funding issue is a nonjusticiable political question. The State Defendants make this argument despite the fact that this court rejected the same argument in 2002. See Lake View Sch. Dist. No. 25 v. Huckabee, 351 Ark. 31, 91 S.W.3d 472 (2002). At that time, we emphasized that the justiciability point had already been decided in an earlier case, DuPree v. Alma School Dist. No. 30, 279 Ark. 340, 651 S.W.2d 90 (1983). We further emphasized that the Education Article in the Arkansas Constitution speaks in terms of the State maintaining a general, suitable, and efficient system of public schools  not the General Assembly. See Ark. Const. art. 14, § 1. We concluded: We reject the State's argument. This court's refusal to review school funding under our state constitution would be a complete abrogation of our judicial responsibility and would work a severe disservice to the people of this state. We refuse to close our eyes or turn a deaf ear to claims of a dereliction of duty in the field of education. As Justice Hugo Black once sagely advised: [T]he judiciary was made independent because it has . . . the primary responsibility and duty of giving force and effect to constitutional liberties and limitations upon the executive and legislative branches. Hugo L. Black, The Bill of Rights, 35 N.Y.U. L.Rev. 865, 870 (1960). Lake View, 351 Ark. at 54, 91 S.W.3d at 484. Not only do the State Defendants raise an argument already decided in the same case, but they cite many of the same cases previously analyzed and discarded by this court in our 2002 opinion. See, e.g., Ex parte James, 836 So.2d 813 (Ala.2002); Marrero v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 559 Pa. 14, 739 A.2d 110 (1999); Coalition for Adequacy & Fairness in School Funding v. Chiles, 680 So.2d 400 (Fla. 1996); Committee for Educational Rights v. Edgar, 174 Ill.2d 1, 220 Ill.Dec. 166, 672 N.E.2d 1178 (1996); City of Pawtucket v. Sundlun, 662 A.2d 40 (R.I.1995). The State now demands that the court replow the same ground. The new authority adduced by the State Defendants in support of their argument is composed of two trial court orders from the State of Nebraska, which has different language respecting education in its state constitution. We reject this argument once more as having no merit.
While this court adopts most of the Masters' Report, we do not do so in toto. At one point in the Report, the Masters make the following comment in connection with the issue of school-district consolidation: The governor is no longer actively participating in this case. They further say that the serious inefficiencies which result from having 250 school districts has been ignored or forgotten by the General Assembly. These conclusions are decidedly outside of the scope of the Masters' charge, and we disassociate ourselves from the statements. While we agree that there are deficiencies in the work done during the 2005 regular session, as discussed below, we view the governor and senators and representatives as dedicated public servants who are striving to meet the educational goals of this state. Indeed, we praised their efforts in 2004 as laudable. See Lake View Sch. Dist. No. 25 v. Huckabee, 358 Ark. 137, 189 S.W.3d 1 (2004).
We agree with the Masters' finding that the linchpin for achieving adequacy in public education is the General Assembly's compliance with Act 57 of the Second Extraordinary Session of 2003. [4] Without a continual assessment of what constitutes an adequate education, without accounting and accountability by the school districts, without an examination of school district expenditures by the House and Senate Interim Committees, and without reports to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate by September 1 before each regular session, the General Assembly is flying blind with respect to determining what is an adequate foundation-funding level. A review of the Masters' Report before us reveals that the General Assembly failed to comply with Act 57 prior to the 2005 regular session. Notably, the Masters concluded that the interim committees made no request to the Department of Education for any information before the 2005 regular session, or even during that session. Thus, vital and pertinent information relating to existing school district revenues, expenditures, and needs was not reviewed. Without that information, the General Assembly could not make an informed funding decision for school years 2005-2006 and 2006-2007. We have no doubt that the decision to freeze the previous year's figure of $5,400 for purposes of 2005-2006 is a direct result of this lack of information. Why did the General Assembly not garner the information in compliance with Act 57? Many reasons are given, but irrespective of those reasons, we are convinced of two things. First, that information is now clearly available. Secondly, this court is not willing to place the issue of an adequate education on hold for the current school year and the next and do nothing with respect to foundation and categorical funding levels, which are integral to public school equality and adequacy. To do so would simply be to write off two years of public education in Arkansas, which we refuse to do. We are aware that by Act 723 of 2005, the General Assembly amended Act 57 to allow for the hiring of consultants by the interim committees to conduct the adequacy review as required under this section. It is unclear whether Act 723 turns adequacy review totally over to consultants. Be that as it may, any such review for 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 for purposes of foundation funding has been thwarted by legislative inaction. Finally, whether a cost-of-living adjustment to the foundation-funding amount is needed is impossible to gauge when there was no compliance with Act 57. We find it troubling, nonetheless, that COLAs were added to the salaries of all state employees, ostensibly to meet the pressures of inflation, while no such adjustment was made to public school funding.
We adopt the Masters' Report as it pertains to findings of other deficiencies directly related to the constitutionality of Arkansas' school funding system and discuss those deficiencies seriatim: 1. Education needs were not funded first, as required by Act 108 of the Second Extraordinary Session of 2003. [5] Rather, foundation-funding aid, as well as categorical funding, were established based upon what funds were available  not by what was needed. In this regard, inflation and unfunded mandates listed in the Masters' Report were not specifically addressed by the General Assembly. It seems patently clear to this court that new funds may be necessary to meet some, if not all, of these unfunded mandates. 2. Facilities funding, by all appearances, falls short. Only one half of the needed state funds for the one-year Immediate Repair Program was appropriated (approximately $20 million versus the $40 million needed) to correct deficiencies in facilities that present an immediate hazard to health and safety. While we recognize that transitional funds are available for transfer to the Immediate Repair Program, no funds were appropriated for either the Immediate Repair Program or the Transitional Program for 2006-2007. Priority One facilities construction and repair for safe, dry, and healthy facilities identified by the Task Force on Educational Facilities showed a cost of $205,342,568, where total facilities funding for the current biennium is $120 million. Should the State delay in commencing Priority One construction and repairs, the ultimate cost in terms of deterioration and disrepair will be significant. The Masters went further and underscored that the facilities needs of certain school districts may never be met due to the requirements of the academic facilities wealth index formula which may negate a local partnership. 3. The amount of the State's foundation aid is based in part on local revenues. The uniform rate of taxation for local revenues is tied to the assessed value of real property within a school district. While actual collection of local revenues may be lower, state foundation aid will not increase. The result is that state foundation aid and local revenues for some school districts may leave school districts with less than $5,400 per student. Such a result runs directly counter to substantial equality and adequacy. 4. The General Assembly froze the categorical funding for 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 for Alternative Learning Environment and English Language Learners. In conjunction with this, because of changes in counting National School Lunch Act qualifying students and decreasing enrollments in some school districts with a high number of NSLA qualifying students, NSLA funding will be reduced. This has a direct impact on remedial and mentoring programs, literacy and math coaches, counselors, school nurses, teachers, and homework hotlines since NSLA funding has been used to support these programs. 5. The Masters found other examples of unintended consequences that further affect the economic stability and adequacy of school districts. They underscored that when a school district loses students, its foundation funding is decreased for the following year though salary costs and personnel costs remain unchanged and are ongoing for the following year. They further alluded to the seeming impossibility of solving the perpetual inequities of teacher salaries between poor and wealthy school districts.
Just as we decided in 2004, we conclude that we have jurisdiction to recall our mandate and address the motions filed by the Rogers School District. See Lake View Sch. Dist. No. 25 v. Huckabee, 355 Ark. 617, 142 S.W.3d 643 (2004). With respect to the remaining issues addressed by the Masters, we hold that the General Assembly failed to comply with Act 57 and Act 108 in the 2005 regular session and, by doing so, retreated from its prior actions to comply with this court's directives in Lake View Sch. Dist. No. 25 v. Huckabee, 351 Ark. 31, 91 S.W.3d 472 (2002). We further hold that the General Assembly could not have provided adequate funding for the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 school years as it made no effort to comply with Act 57 and to determine what adequate funding should be. To argue that inaction under Act 57 may equate to adequacy, as the State seems to maintain, does not thread the needle of either logic or reason. In connection with facilities funding, we hold that appropriations for the Immediate Repair Program and Priority One facilities construction and repair for safe, dry, and healthy facilities were grossly underfunded and, thus, inadequate. To assure an adequate education for the school children of this state and a substantially equal educational opportunity, which the Arkansas Constitution demands, the procedures set forth in Act 57 and Act 108 must be complied with forthwith. Otherwise, a two-year hiatus in educational adequacy will result. As part and parcel of this adequacy analysis, we call upon the General Assembly to address the deficiencies listed above. While we recognize that failures in the process due to noncompliance with Act 57 and Act 108 are evident, this court does not direct the General Assembly to appropriate a specific increase in foundation or categorized funding amounts, as requested by the Rogers School District. Whether an increase is necessary is for the General Assembly to determine, after its compliance with existing legislation and its assessment of the relevant information necessary for fixing funding levels in the current biennium, including available revenues, surplus funds, and expenditures by the school districts. Because we hold that the public school-funding system continues to be inadequate, we further hold that our public schools are operating under a constitutional infirmity which must be corrected immediately. We have held in the past that the General Assembly and Department of Education should have time to cure the deficiencies, and we do so again. We stay the issuance of our mandate until December 1, 2006, to allow the necessary time to correct the constitutional deficiencies. We emphasize once more that it is the State that must provide a general, suitable, and efficient system of public education to the children of this state under the Arkansas Constitution. The roles of the executive and legislative branches are integral to assuring that this transpires. But it is also the duty of this court to assure constitutional compliance when compliance is challenged and to assure that the will of the people of our state as expressed in our constitution is fulfilled. We will perform that duty. Granted in part. Denied in part. Motion to Strike State's Brief denied. Motion to Take Judicial Notice denied. GLAZE, J., and Special Justice DALBY, concur. HANNAH, C.J., and GUNTER, J., dissent. IMBER, J., not participating.