Arkansas "Adequacy Study" Calls for Increased Funding and Recommends Major Restructuring

On September 3, 2003, the Arkansas Joint Committee on Educational Adequacy released a study that calculates the cost of providing an adequate education for the state's pre-K through 12th-grade students at a figure 33% higher than current spending. The Joint Committee's report, "An Evidence-Based Approach to School Finance Adequacy in Arkansas," also delineates strategies it says are essential if additional resources are to result in students being able to meet the state's achievement standards.

The cost study asserts that annual school funding would have to increase by $848 million to provide the resources needed to enable students to meet the state's performance standards. That's a 33% increase over the $2.6 billion (from all sources) spent by Arkansas schools in the 2001-2002 school year. (All numbers exclude capital and debt-service spending.) Consultants performing the cost study used the effective strategies and professional judgment methodologies.

The Joint Committee's report explains that implementation of its recommendations would require most schools to "restructure their academic programs, strengthen their core academic courses, and reallocate [] resources . . . to a more effective, school wide educational program." Emphasizing funds for small class sizes, pre-school for all low-income 3 and 4-year-old children, and teacher salaries that are competitive with surrounding states, the study also recommends that additional monies be directed toward the purchase of "effective curriculum programs," improved leadership, and intensive professional development.

The state formed this Joint Committee of the legislature in response to the Arkansas Supreme Court's decision, last November in Lake View v. State, in which the court declared the state education finance system unconstitutional and ordered the state to conduct an adequacy study. Since then, the proposed consolidation of Arkansas's rural school districts has also become a key issue.

The supreme court set a January 2004 deadline for the state to remedy the constitutional violation.

Prepared September 4, 2003