Opinion ID: 1843606
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: public school funding must be equitable and adequate.

Text: The system of public education in the State of Alabama shall be funded sufficiently to enable all public schools to fully achieve constitutional and statutory standards of educational equity and adequacy, including all components of this Court Order. The quality of a child's education shall not be dependent upon where the child lives and attends school. The State shall institute a public school funding system which shall ensure an adequate, equitable and appropriate education for all students, and which shall be governed by the following principles:
The State shall establish a foundation program that shall operate to assure all children an adequately funded education. Sufficient funding to provide an adequate education shall be phased in through the foundation program over a period not to exceed six years from the entry of this Court's order. School funding, both among school systems and among schools within school systems, shall be equitable. The funding system shall minimize educational disadvantages due to social or economic deprivation. The foundation program shall require a uniform local tax effort equalized by the State so that every school child shall receive an adequately funded educational opportunity regardless of factors such as local indifference, low aspirations, or other conditions unrelated to educational need. Locally collected taxes used as a means of financing public education shall be levied in school taxing districts that are co-extensive with entire local school systems. Authorization for local school system taxes (rates permitted, kinds of taxes authorized, etc.) shall be uniform, so that all school systems have equal access to their respective tax bases, and sufficient taxing authority to participate fully in the State funding system developed for the public education system. Defendants shall develop a method for determining what level of funding is necessary to provide an adequate education in Alabama, and the state shall ensure that this level of funding (and any additional funding based on weighing for special-needs students) is provided in every school system in the state. Defendants shall submit this proposed method to the Court within six months of the date of this Court's order. The method developed necessary to provide an adequate education may change over time. Parties shall have 60 days from the submission of this method to file objections with the Court. School systems shall distribute all resources among the schools within each system in an equitable manner, reflecting the school population and educational needs of each school in the system. A method shall be developed for tracking resources to the school level to ensure that resources are equitably allocated. This method shall be submitted to the Court within six months of the date of the Court's remedy order. Parties shall have 45 days from its submission to file objections with the Court. The system of fringe benefits for state and local school employees currently paid on behalf of local school systems by the State shall be equalized by incorporation into the foundation program. Fringe benefits shall be funded by the current equalized revenues of local school systems and paid directly to the appropriate State agency rather than being paid on behalf of local systems by the State. The funding system shall direct relatively greater resources to children with measurably greater needs. In order to do this, the system shall use the pupil, rather than the teacher unit, as the unit for measuring the funding needs of local school systems and allocating funds to address those needs. A weighting system shall be developed for special education, at-risk, vocational education, and other students whose education is demonstrably more expensive, that reflects the additional cost of providing those students with an adequate education. Special education funds shall be distributed so that no school system receives a financial incentive to place a child with a disability in a segregated setting or to diagnose or classify a child in any one category of disability. Pupil weights shall be submitted to the Court no later than six months from the date of the Court's remedy order. Parties shall have 45 days from this submission to file objections with the Court. The funding system shall take into consideration high cost factors, such as sparsity and geographical isolation, which cause expenditures to vary and affect the quality of educational services. The funding system shall not result in any local school system receiving less combined state and local revenue on a per student basis than was received in the fiscal year ending September 30, 1993, [fn. : This provision excludes special appropriations for catastrophic events such as floods and major fires.] provided that this paragraph shall have no force and effect after September 30, 1994, unless the State has fully implemented a funding system which complies with all provisions of this Order. With respect to students with disabilities, distribution of funds will assure that no school system expends less that it spent the previous year for the education of these students, consistent with Federal laws and regulations. Defendants shall submit to the Court within six months of the date of the remedy order a report on the funding system to be utilized. The parties shall have 45 days to file objections to the system with the Court.
Children shall have adequate, safe and efficient public transportation. Transportation shall be funded as an item separate and apart from other operational expenditures and outside the foundation program taking into account the costs of efficiently managed services. The allocation to each school system must be based on an efficiency determination using actual operating costs of each school district (including costs of bus purchases), density of pupil population, the number of pupils transported, and the other requirements set forth in this Order. The State shall pay the full cost as determined by the allocation formula.
Funds shall be provided outside the foundation program that will eliminate identified deficiencies in school facilities within five (5) years of the Court's approval of the plan to remedy its deficiencies. Funds shall also be provided for the on-going soundness and adequacy of educational facilities in Alabama. The funding system for eliminating deficiencies in facilities and for new construction shall be equitable and shall take into account: the current state of buildings, the existing capital debt services and tax capacity of local systems. Fund allocations for facilities shall not be made on a per capita basis, but rather shall be made according to priorities based upon need as determined by a needs assessment to be conducted by Defendants. Within twelve months of this Court's order, Defendants' assessment instrument shall be submitted to the Court. Parties shall have 45 days to file objections to the instrument with the Court. When the needs assessment is completed, Defendants shall submit it to the Court along with their plan for construction and renovation to eliminate identified deficiencies. Parties shall have 45 days to file objections with the Court to its findings.
The Defendants shall annually review all aspects of the school funding system, including the levels of adequacy and equity that it achieves, and including a report on the level of disparity created, if any; shall identify impediments that interfere with its success; and shall assure that State school revenues are raised and distributed fairly. Defendants shall report to the Court and the parties on these subjects on an annual basis. Parties shall have 45 days to file objections with the Court as to the operation of the funding system.