Education Lawsuits Succeeding With 'No Child Left Behind' Data
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 7/8/2004
In South Carolina's Marion 7 school district, water leaks from the cracked roofs of dilapidated wooden buildings surrounded by unpaved parking lots. Science labs are makeshift or nonexistent. Good teachers may receive bonuses of $300 at most, a petty sum in comparison to neighboring Horry County's bonuses of $10,000."We don't have the money to employ and retain high-quality teachers," said Everette M. Dean, superintendent of Marion 7. "Our students aren't being given the opportunity to attain an adequate education," he added.
Marion 7 is one of eight low-income South Carolina school districts suing the state for more funding, and they are using data generated by the new federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law to do it. The trial evidence includes detailed comparisons of predominantly black low-income rural districts to affluent white districts on such measures as NCLB test results, SAT scores, teacher salaries and the percentage of students eligible for free lunches.
For many years, lawyers across the country have filed lawsuits based on state constitutional mandates for adequate education. All but five states have faced adequacy suits at some time, with approximately half of them currently pending.
The legal basis for the lawsuits has not changed, but now data generated to satisfy the testing requirements of NCLB is being used as powerful evidence of inadequate education and the need for increased funding for low-income school districts. With courts increasingly turning hostile to desegregation lawsuits, funding equity suits have moved to the forefront of efforts to establish equal educational opportunity.
According to Steven Smith, an education analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures, plaintiffs have won approximately 70 percent of recent adequacy suits and are attaining court orders requiring states to provide more money for low-income school districts. Smith predicts that the number of funding adequacy lawsuits will increase as more schools fail to meet the performance goals of NCLB.
"From our point of view, [NCLB] testing has been very helpful in pinpointing the problem, and showing exactly which kids are not making the grade," said Michael A. Rebell, executive director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which used NCLB data to win a 10-year old lawsuit against New York state last year.
In New York, which has one of the most segregated school systems in the country, the disparities in wealth, school funding, and educational outcomes are extreme (See Realize the Dream's New York state report card). The Census Bureau's poverty index for New York's large urban school districts is more than 10 times higher than it is for the state's "low need" districts.
New York City schools are terribly under-funded, have a student body that is 85 percent minority, and a high school graduation rate of only 38 percent according to an Urban Institute analysis. The same study shows that Sachem County, one of the larger wealthy districts in suburban New York with a 90 percent white student body, has a high school graduation rate of 94 percent.
The Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which won the New York case, is seeking a $9.5 billion increase in the state's education budget. The increased funding would be phased in over four years, and would amount to a 30 percent increase. The amount is derived from "The New York Adequacy Study," a highly detailed report on the cost and specific program needs to achieve educational adequacy for New York's public primary and secondary schools.
Similar studies are being conducted in states across the country. According to the ACCESS Project, a national clearinghouse working to coordinate school financing lawsuits, public advocacy campaigns and standards-based educational reform, more than 30 costing-out studies have been conducted since 1991.
New York is not alone – several other states are also facing court orders to increase education funding or redistribute it more equitably. Critics, including many recalcitrant state lawmakers, argue that courts are not qualified to be making such huge demands on state budgets.
In Kansas, the state legislature has refused to comply with a court order to fix its system of public school financing, prompting the trial judge to threaten to close down the entire state school system until lawmakers meet their obligation to ensure equality under the state constitution. The case has been appealed to the state Supreme Court.
"It's a huge amount of money," admits Rebell of the increase sought in New York, "but there is a huge problem that needs to be solved."
