Educators want answers from State about court mandate

By JOE SOVA / Hungry Horse News

On Tuesday, a document was filed in First Judicial District Court, Lewis and Clark County, seeking an answer from the State of Montana about whether court mandates have been satisfied pertaining to funding for education.

The lawsuit in district court and the State Supreme Court date back nearly four years, to April of 2004. School districts have been waiting, recently impatiently, for the State to provide relief for financially-ailing school districts.

"We won the lawsuit at both levels," School District 6 Superintendent Michael Nicosia said Tuesday. "We wanted to file a 'show cause' order right after the last legislative session."

However, through the Montana School Boards Association, it was decided to wait and see how funding for Fiscal Year 2009 was going to affect school districts. The news was not good. Many districts in Montana are facing cuts — in programs, teachers and possibly staff.

"Our membership told us it was time to move," Nicosia said of Tuesday's court filing, which is not a lawsuit but is a request for action by the State of Montana.

Named as plaintiffs in the court filing are Columbia Falls, East Helena, Helena, Billings, White Sulphur Springs and Troy school districts as well as MEA-MFT, Montana School Boards Association, Montana Rural Education Association and School Administrators of Montana. Parents of students who are also among the plaintiffs are Alan and Nancy Nicholson, Peter and Cheryl Marchi, and Nicosia and his wife, Susan, who is also a District 6 employee. The State of Montana is listed as the defendant.

It is up to the court to determine whether or not the State has complied with the mandate, which included the establishment of a new funding formula. The Legislature said that by July 1, 2007 they would have a formula developed, according to Nicosia.

"There is not a new formula," Nicosia said. "Where we find ourselves, three years after the dust clears from the lawsuit, is that we're facing cuts… We've cut a tremendous amount out of our programs in this district and other districts in the state have done the same."

In a nutshell, "We're right back where we were before we filed the lawsuit," the superintendent said.

According to Nicosia, "School districts want to open their doors next year without making those cuts we're dreading."

In Tuesday's filing, the plaintiffs "put the State of Montana on notice of its failure to meet its constitutional and statutory obligations by filing their Motion for Supplemental Relief and an Order to Show Cause, dated June 13, 2006. District court denied the motion at that time, indicating that it would entertain a similar motion after the 2007 Legislature had met and acted.

The filing said that 40 percent of school districts in Montana — numbering 170 — would need increased voted levies for FY '09 just to maintain current budgets, assuming a 3.5 percent inflationary growth. More than 28,000 students, or about one-fifth of students in Montana's public schools, are educated in those districts.

Nicosia explained that inflation in education is about twice that of private inflation.

"We're kind of a captive audience," he said.

Yes, there was money from the 2007 Legislature. But Nicosia said a bulk of that was earmarked, such as for full-day kindergarten in the Columbia Falls district.

Nicosia said that whatever school districts get from the State won't make up for 12 years of under funding.

"It's not an ongoing commitment to solve the [funding] problem," Nicosia said. "The will to adequately fund education is not there."

If funding doesn't come from the State, it will be on the shoulders of local property taxpayers, according to Nicosia.

School District 6's elementary budget for FY '09 is an increase of 1.7 percent while the increase in the high school budget is just .7 percent.

The Columbia Falls district faces a projected general fund budget shortfall of about $290,000 for FY '09. That would mean cuts totally that amount and/or increasing taxes through a voted levy. The district is allowed, by law, to request only about $43,000 in a voted levy for FY '09.

Montana teachers are already among the lowest paid in public schools in the nation, ranking 46th in average salaries. This continues to cause problems with recruitment and retention, according to Tuesday's court filing.