BISMARCK -- A national tax group says its study shows court-mandated school funding increases don't necessarily last and that some states' education spending slowed instead of keeping pace with mandates.
"It appears that calling your legislator is still the best way to get more money to schools," says the study's author.
Some North Dakota legislators say it reinforces their belief that this state had the right outcome when it worked out a settlement with the plaintiff schools instead of letting the case go to court. The 2007 Legislature enacted the settlement into a new funding formula and the schools that sued dismissed the case this spring.
The Tax Foundation's study was released at the American Legislative Exchange Council meeting last week in Philadelphia. It mentions North Dakota's 1994 court decision as well as the preliminary settlement that was reached in December 2005. It considers North Dakota's 1994 court decision a settlement and calls it the nation's "costliest settlement."
Study author Chris Atkins said nine of the 27 states that were sued over school funding "explicitly raised taxes" to pay for the court mandated education spending.
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Of the nine, three nevertheless saw a decline in the growth rate of school funding:
- Kentucky: Court decision 1989. Growth rate in school funding 1977-1989 was 2.55 percent. Since the decision, it has slowed to 2.45 percent.
- New Jersey: Court decision 1990. Growth rate in school funding 1977-1990 was 4.05 percent. Since the decision, it has slowed to 1.9 percent.
- Texas: Court decision 1989. Growth rate in school funding 1977-89 was 3.32 percent. Since the decision, it has slowed to 1.9 percent.
A fourth state that was sued but did not explicitly raise taxes in order to spend more on schools has also slowed its school spending growth. Idaho's growth rate before its 1998 court decision was 2.47 percent and 1.83 after.
Atkins' study goes only through 2004.
"These findings show that while judges certainly hold power, the legislature will always retain the 'power of the purse,' " Atkins said. "Short-term funding gains realized by schools in the wake of judicial rulings have not produced, on the whole, higher school funding in the long haul."
That, says Sen. Tim Flakoll, R-Fargo "does help reaffirm that the state of North Dakota took the correct approach when it reached an agreement to work on this without the intervention of the courts."
He said the beauty of the North Dakota settlement enacted this year is that all parts of the state and aspects of education have "gained a sense of ownership."
He said the final product here also addresses academic progress in that it puts money into all-day kindergarten and increases funds to special education students with the greatest needs.
Sen. Ray Holmberg, R-Grand Forks, a 30-year veteran of the Legislature and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, agrees that working through lawmakers is the way to go because that "is the arena where the various interests (taxpayers, education advocates, teachers' unions, etc.) get the best bang for the buck."
But freshman Sen. JoNell Bakke, D-Grand Forks, isn't convinced appealing to the Legislature has been the answer.
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"The reality is that in many states, including North Dakota, that has not been successful," she said. "The lawsuit that faced the state was the result of too many unanswered requests from the public school community to the state Legislature."
Don Canton, a spokesman for Gov. John Hoeven, whose office was key in brokering the current settlement, said he's not sure how well Atkins' study reflects North Dakota.
"We weren't under mandate and the report criticizes judicially imposed solutions," he said.
Interestingly, Atkins considers North Dakota's 1994 Supreme Court decision a settlement because even though a majority of the justices agreed the state formula was unconstitutional, it needed four of the five justices to agree--and thus did not represent a court mandate.
Nevertheless, he says the Legislature's actions afterward were as if the state were under a mandate.
He said the trend in North Dakota's education spending increases between 1977 and 1994 was a growth rate of less than 1 percent, and after 1994 it leaped to 3.94 percent.
Atkins does not mention that North Dakota's oil-bust budget crises between the mid and late 1980s and early 1990s led legislators and the governor to cut school funding.
Cole works for Forum Communications Co., which owns The Jamestown Sun
