Attorneys for state: Toss school funding suit
Brandon Larrabee, Morris News Service
August 8, 2008
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A lack of evidence should prompt a judge to throw out a lawsuit saying Georgia officials don't
spend enough to help local schools, attorneys for the state said during a hearing that marked a
preview of the upcoming trial.
The hearing technically concerned a legal maneuver to have the case dismissed because, the state says, the 50 districts behind the lawsuit can't prove that more spending would increase student achievement.
Roughly a third of Georgia's school systems have joined the lawsuit to require the state spend enough to provide the "adequate education" that the state constitution specifies. State officials have been fighting the suit for three years, contending taxpayers already spend enough to meet the goal.
Lawyers for the state said the districts simply don't have enough evidence to prove that the state has failed to meet its constitutional duty to educate students.
Deputy Attorney General Stefan Ritter said the General Assembly, Gov. Sonny Perdue and the State Department of Education have worked diligently to introduce programs aimed at improving the state's lackluster academic record, even as test scores and graduation rates rise. "The state is not resting on its laurels," Ritter said.
Rocco Testani, an attorney hired by the state to help with its defense, said the districts had so far been unable to produce any statistical analysis backing up their arguments.
"They've got 16 experts that could have done it, and they tried to do it, and they failed," said Testani, of the districts' law firm Sutherland Asbill & Brennan.
He also pointed out that districts were free to spend more local money, as long as they were willing to increase property taxes to do so.
"Just by raising (local property tax rates) a couple of mills, they will be able to generate substantial additional revenue," Testani said. A mill is the amount of tax on each thousand dollars of assessed value.
But attorney Ben Rogers, representing the consortium, said Georgia still comes in behind almost every state in many measures of academic performance and has failed to make much headway in recent years.
"We're stuck at the bottom of the pile, not getting better," he said. "Why? Because the state's not doing what's necessary to help these kids achieve an adequate education."
Rogers also said the districts and their attorneys would provide plenty of testimony and documents to back up their claims. "We believe that in the trial in October, we will be able to present you with a mountain of evidence, a Mt. Everest of evidence," he said.
The hearing also showed the potential problems, both legal and political, for each side if the case goes to trial.
For example, attorneys for the state slammed Charlton County's decision to boost the salary supplement for the high school principal and football coach while also cutting a reading teacher's position it said was crucial. Charlton is one of the districts filing suit.
"It's a question of priorities," Testani said.
Rogers said 73 of the coach's players had ended up heading to college on scholarship.
And during his presentation, Rogers also underscored the testimony of the director of accountability in the Georgia Department of Education, who said during her deposition that "I think you can do without science" and "I think (Georgia students) can succeed in the world without social studies."
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Long said she will rule on the state's motion soon but offered no specifics on when that would be.
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