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Lawyer Presses Case for State Panel on School Funding

The lead lawyer for families suing the state over education funding asked a judge yesterday to order the state to create a commission to determine how much money districts need to run public schools, but he stopped short of recommending a dollar amount.

Michael D. Weisman said a commission is needed because the state is distributing $3.2 billion annually to school districts based on information that is more than a decade old. The result, he said, is that districts such as Springfield, Brockton, and Winchendon are so strapped they are struggling to pay for basics such as textbooks, libraries, and computer equipment.

"I'm asking the court to establish the 21st Century Foundation Budget Commission to rationalize the school finance system," Weisman said after the close of yesterday's hearing in Suffolk Superior Court. The group would be charged with going "back to superintendents and asking what resources they need to get the job done."

Weisman, however, would not say exactly what he thinks the state needs to spend to improve the Commonwealth's 1,900 schools.

"It wouldn't be appropriate," he said after the Hancock v. Driscoll case finished for the day. "We're not asking the court to mandate specific expenditures. We're asking the state to figure out what resources will be needed."

The commission -- educators, lawmakers, and parents -- would draft a budget recommendation that would be approved by the court and submitted to the Legislature. Weisman also asked the court to require that the Education Department provide "sufficient resources" to all districts.

A department spokeswoman said officials there needed to carefully examine the request before commenting.

Weisman represents families in 19 Massachusetts districts who say the state is failing to provide an adequate education for every child. He said yesterday that districts are stretched too thin to maintain small classes, provide rich preschool and after-school activities, and keep children from dropping out.

Weisman cited numerous examples, mostly in urban districts, in which classes have grown to more than 35 children and schools no longer provide libraries, music, or art classes.

Assistant Attorney General Deidre Roney said in court yesterday that the state has made great strides since 1993, when the Supreme Judicial Court ruled in McDuffy v. Secretary of Education that the Commonwealth must finance schools equitably, regardless of a town's wealth. Since then, funding disparities have shrunk, and the majority of the state's students are passing required state graduation tests.

"There is no correlation between spending and improvement," Roney said. "The state is fulfilling its duty in terms of education."

Weisman, however, said the state was holding itself to a lower standard.

"The Commonwealth seems to think that all it needs to show is effort or progress," he said.

The lawyers sketched out their closing arguments yesterday for Judge Margot Botsford, who will resume hearings Jan. 12. She is scheduled to report her findings in February to the SJC, which will issue a final ruling.

After the hearing, Weisman said there is precedent for what his clients are asking seeking. In New York State, officials have begun evaluating financial needs after that state's highest court in June ordered changes to the system that channels money to New York City schools.

Massachusetts superintendents were last surveyed more than a decade ago, when the state was in the throes of changing education financing to equitably distribute school spending among districts, Weisman said.

The amount recommended then by the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education was set before costly state standards and federal No Child Left Behind mandates began. In other words, Weisman said, the state is basing its annual $3.2 billion school financing on old information, leaving cities locked in a cycle of need.

"It's not just poverty, it's clusters of poverty. It's not just that the child is poor, it's the schools that are poor," Weisman said outside of court. "I want to scare people into understanding the magnitude of the crisis in the Commonwealth."


— Suzanne Sataline
Lawyer Presses Case for State Panel on School Funding
Boston Globe
2003-12-23
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2003/12/23/lawyer_presses_case_for_state_panel_on_school_funding/

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