Arkansas Supreme Court Declares School Funding System Unconstitutional; State Must Prepare Adequacy Study and "Chart a New Course for Public Education"

On November 21, 2002, in Lake View School District v. Huckabee, the Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed a lower court decision declaring the state education finance system unconstitutional and finding "extremely troublesome" the State's failure to prepare a study on the per-pupil cost of providing an adequate education. The "key" to a constitutional funding system, the court said, is to determine what comprises an adequate education, including adequate funding to provide it.

The court stayed its order for little more than one year, until January 1, 2004, to allow the State "time to correct this constitutional [violation] . . . and chart a new course for public education in this state."

The court rejected the State's "farfetched" and "implausible" argument that enhanced school funding does not correlate with better student performance, and concluded that adequately paid "teachers, sufficient equipment to supplement instruction, and learning in facilities that are [adequate], all combine to enhance educational performance. . . . All of that takes money."

The court found the funding system unconstitutional both because it is inadequate and inequitable. Under the Education Article of the state constitution, the court held, "the State has an absolute duty . . . to provide an adequate education to each school child." After reiterating some of the lower court's factual findings about the quality of education, the court concluded that the state has "a remarkably serious problem with student performance" and that the current educational system is "woefully inadequate." Therefore, the court held that "the State has not fulfilled its constitutional duty" to provide an adequate education and "the current school-funding system violates the Education Article."

Prepared November 21, 2002