School Funding Lawsuit Getting Underway in Jefferson City Courtroom

A lawsuit challenging the equitability and adequacy of Missouri’s public schools – a suit filed in January of 2004 – goes to court Wednesday. Tyler Laney, Superintendent of the Crane School District in southwest Missouri, is one of the driving forces behind the legal action. He chairs the Committee for Educational Equality, which is made up of 236 school districts – down from a high of 256 in July of 2005. Laney insists both the old funding formula under which the lawsuit was filed and the new formula now in effect leave some districts without equitable and adequate funding. Laney says he doesn’t know how to level the playing field, but insists a school funding system based heavily on local property taxes does not work well with some of the smaller or poorer districts. He suggests the General Assembly must go back to work to find some of the revenues needed to ensure all Missouri students are treated fairly.