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State wins first round in school funding lawsuit fight

By Julia Silverman, The Associated Press

September 15, 2006 - (Portland, Ore.)--The state won the first round in the legal battle over school funding on Friday, with Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Christopher Marshall ruling from the bench that the Oregon constitution makes no guarantees or promises on school funding levels.

It was a setback for backers of the lawsuit, which has been joined by 18 school districts from across the state and four families, who said they plan an appeal, most likely to the Oregon Court of Appeals, but perhaps directly to the state's highest court.

"I would call this the end of round one," said David Angeli, lead lawyer for the plaintiffs. "Ultimately, this will get resolved by the Supreme Court. We knew it wasn't going to end here."

Eighteen school districts and four families filed suit against the state last spring, accusing legislative leaders of violating the Oregon Constitution by chronically underfunding schools.

Oregon is the 39th state to turn to the courts for direction on school funding. Of the other cases, 21 have resulted in courts ordering lawmakers to restructure school funding, eight have been won by the state and nine are still pending.

Arguments on Friday turned on two sections of the Oregon Constitution, including a portion that dates to Oregon's statehood in 1859, and charges the state with providing "a uniform and general system of common schools."
Angeli argued that the phrase on its own suggested that the founders intended there to be, "some substantive adequacy to our school funding situation," and noted that many of the other states where the courts have found in favor of plaintiffs in school funding lawsuits have constitutional language similar to Oregon's.

But David Leith, attorney in charge of the special litigation unit for the Oregon Department of Justice, countered that existing case law in Oregon had found no basis for a funding mandate implicit in the article, and that considering cases from outside the state was largely "irrelevant."

Judge Marshall agreed, ruling that, "nothing in that language mandates adequate funding."

Discussion then turned to a constitutional amendment, passed by voters in 2000 that requires legislators to set aside enough funding to meet the goals outlined by an ambitious education blueprint known as the Quality Education Model. The model is designed to bring 90 percent of Oregon students up to grade level on core subjects, and would fund smaller class sizes, up-to-date technology and more teacher training.

Under the constitutional amendment, if legislators didn't set aside enough money to meet the model's goals, they would be required to publicly explain why not in a report.

Angeli argued that in passing the amendment, voters had not intended on an "either/or" set-up. Rather, he said, the amendment carried the expectation that legislators would come up with enough money to fund schools in line with the Quality Education Model, which in the current two-year budget cycle would have meant $7.1 billion for schools, instead of the $5.24 billion that was actually appropriated.

But state attorney Charles Fletcher countered that voters intended nothing of the sort, instead, he said, "voters understood that they were establishing a benchmark to measure the extent to which legislators were complying."
Generally, news coverage of the amendment before the November, 2000 election did not imply to voters that a "yes" vote on the measure would result in a new - and expensive - fiscal mandate, Fletcher said, an argument that found favor with Judge Marshall.

Per-pupil school funding in Oregon has been on the decline since 1990, when voters passed Measure 5, capping local property taxes and shifting the bulk of responsibility for school funding to the state.

In 2006, Oregon ranked 31st in the nation in per-pupil spending nationwide, according to a survey by Education Week, which said the state spent an average $7,491 per pupil, below the national average of $8,041.