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 Response to Schools Not Good Enough
by Tom Campbell
August 13, 2008
After the Supreme Court ruled that the state illegally withheld fines and forfeitures to school systems from 1996 to 2005, Wake Superior Court Judge Howard Manning gave notice last December the sum could be as large as 760 million dollars. Manning said he would withhold final judgment until early this year, signaling that a brokered agreement between the schools and the legislature would be welcomed.
As the months wore on it became obvious no such agreement would be reached. The schools believed the legislature was mandated to provide a sound basic education and it was the duty of lawmakers to appropriate adequate funding. Fines and forfeitures were to be in addition to regular funding. Schools were willing to negotiate the amount of fines owed for the years in question and how they could be paid. Legislators were incensed by the lawsuit and verdict. They had increased funding for low wealth schools, upped teacher pay, gave Governor Easley additional funding for More at Four and Learn and Earn, and hiked other funding. They believed they were providing adequate funding. Additional money for fines and forfeitures would require reductions in other state programs.
Manning’s patience finally wore thin and since he was required to issue a judgment, declared the schools were owed 748 million dollars. But Manning left the door open as to a time frame for payment, admitting he couldn’t force lawmakers to pay anything.
Public response to the judgment from legislators was troubling. Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand said there was no money to give, even though lawmakers had notice for many months the bill was coming due. House Speaker Joe Hackney said everyone assumed from the beginning the payment would come from existing state funding to public schools. Just who the “everyone” might be is unknown. School leaders certainly didn’t know it.
Like it or not our lawmakers are showing our schools just who is in charge and what happens when you attempt to force them to do something. It isn’t pretty. The schools won the verdict but that’s about all. They won’t likely see any new funding. The only thing really accomplished by this lawsuit was that the schools forced the state to start forwarding them the fines and forfeitures collected after 2005. It is a hollow victory.
It is true the state’s revenue picture is not healthy, but this is hardly justification for the out-of-hand dismissal of Manning’s verdict. A more understandable public response might have been to say Judge Manning’s verdict involves large sums and will require further discussion to determine how to proceed.
If, on the other hand, the response masks a larger frustration over the progress of education reform and what our citizens are getting in return for their increased education investment it would be understandable, especially in light of recent revelations, with weak supporting evidence, that 82 percent of our schools were meeting or exceeding expectations. Federal No Child Left Behind scores indicate only 39 percent are successful.
But if our leadership’s statements are nothing more than a petulant response to having been taken to court and having a judge stipulate the amount they owe our schools our lawmakers’ responses to our schools are not good enough. |
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