Court Opinion

ID: 9691213
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 20:16:55.87621+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:13.134327
License: Public Domain

Donald L. Corbin, Justice, concurring. I hesitate to write separately because I wholeheartedly agree with the majority’s position in this matter. Unfortunately, I cannot sit back and allow the dissenters to label me as some kind of “super-legislature.” Simply put, the dissenters do not agree with the majority’s decision to reappoint the Masters to investigate the very serious allegations raised by a number of school districts of this State, so they attempt to cloud the real issues at hand by raising the specter that this court is creating a constitutional crisis by usurping the role of the General Assembly. This is simply not the case. By reappointing the Masters, the majority is fulfilling its duty to oversee the constitutionality of the State’s educational system. At this time, this court has no way of knowing whether the legislation enacted puts the State’s educational system on the road to constitutionality. The Masters will be in a position to take evidence to determine if there is any truth to the accusations. I believe that many in the General Assembly have worked diligently to improve our system of education, but just because some action has been taken does not mean that this court should assume that all is well and summarily dismiss the petitions now pending. Reappointing the Masters is not tantamount to legislating. I do not believe that the majority has any designs to tell the legislative branch how to manage specific educational programs or that it must enact any specific legislation regarding education. We are in accord that it is the duty of the legislative branch to develop policy as it relates to our system of education. However, this court has decreed that the General Assembly must provide the children of this State with an adequate and substantially equal education. If we were to ignore the allegations that have now been raised before this court, we would be shirking our duties to the citizens of this State. The dissent makes much ado about the fact that the members of the General Assembly have been elected by the people of this State to represent their interests; well, the members of this court have also been elected by the citizens of Arkansas and one of our duties as jurists is to ensure that the laws governing the people of this State are constitutional. It would certainly be easier for this court to rule that we have no jurisdiction and that any new challenge must again be filed in the circuit court, but to do so would send a signal that our resolve to ensure a constitutional educational system was less than strong. Moreover, requiring the filing of a new lawsuit would result in yet another prolonged delay to a critical issue that has been pending before this court for twenty-two years. Such a result is unacceptable. Glaze and Dickey, JJ., join in this concurrence.