Georgia governor questions legality of districts funding finance suit
Gov. Sonny Perdue has asked Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker for a legal opinion on the legality of local school districts using taxpayer dollars to fund a lawsuit against the state over education funding, reports the Cedartown Standard. The governor’s request is the latest tactic in his ongoing opposition to small school districts that have sued the state, claiming inequality in funding. In his letter to the attorney general, Gov. Perdue cited this provision in Georgia’s constitution: “[s]chool tax funds shall be expended only for the support and maintenance of public schools, public vocational-technical schools, public education, and activities necessary or incidental thereto, including school lunch purposes.” Ga. Const. Art. VIII, Sec. VI, Para. I(b). “Taxpayers in these school districts need to know that their education tax dollars have been used to pay lawyers suing the state instead of in their children’s classrooms,” the governor stated. “My hope is that in the future decisions on school funding will be made through the public policy process, not in a courtroom where the plaintiffs’ lawyers are paid with local education tax dollars to battle defense lawyers paid with state tax dollars.” The governor's letter also cited Georgia Supreme Court rulings which “have clearly stated that expenditures that are neither necessary nor incidental to education are not permissible under the Constitution.” State School Superintendent Kathy Cox has recommended that districts not use public school funds to pay dues to the Consortium for Adequate School Funding until this constitutional question is resolved. The governor's office further stated that if the attorney general determines the school systems’ expenditures are unconstitutional or illegal, “Georgia law will require Superintendent Cox to recover misspent state funds from the offending districts either through settlement or court proceedings” (per OCGA §20-2-36).
Source: Cedartown Standard, 9/27/08, By Staff
[Editor’s Note: Information on the Georgia finance adequacy lawsuit is available starting at the first link below. It would seem the governor is aware of events in South Dakota, where the attorney general employed a similar tactic against school districts. In the resulting legal challenge school districts and parents in that state brought against his opinion, a state trial court in August ruled that South Dakota school districts lack both legal standing to bring a finance adequacy suit as well as legal authority to finance it. See the second link.]
NSBA School Law pages on Consortium for Adequate School Funding in Georgia v. Georgia
NSBA School Law pages on Olson v. Guindon