Foes agree: schools shorted, should sue

This from Pat Crowley at the Enquirer:

State Senate candidates say court may be solution

UNION - Republican candidates in Kentucky rarely support filing lawsuits to change policy. U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the titular head of the state GOP, is even poking fun at litigation as he campaigns for re-election.

"The Democrats want to tax, regulate and litigate everything," the four-term senator says in his stump speech. "It's in their DNA."

The Republicans running for a Northern Kentucky Senate seat say the courts may offer the only remedy for changing the state's public school funding formula.

John Schickel and Charlie Walton, the Union Republicans squaring off in the state Senate 11th District primary May 20, concede school districts here and elsewhere in Kentucky may be forced to file suit to change what they and many others claim are inequities in the funding formula.

"I don't feel like the solution is political," said Schickel, who is retired from a career in law enforcement, including serving as Boone County jailer. "So when you can't do something politically ... you seek relief in the courts."

Walton, the principal of Florence Elementary in Boone County and a former state lawmaker, said if he is elected to the four-year term, he will first try a legislative approach for changing what is known as the SEEK formula.

"When I get down there I'm going to tell (legislators) I'll work with you for two years, and we'll try to do the right thing," said Walton, a career educator. "But then I'm going to recommend that the school districts file a lawsuit against the state."

Schickel and Walton say funding is not adequate or equitable for school districts that are fast-growing or property-rich. It favors smaller, poorer and rural districts.

Legislators from Northern Kentucky and other urban and suburban districts have tried for years to change the formula. But lawmakers from regions that benefit from it - which is most of the state - have successfully killed those attempts.

So the two Republican candidates are suggesting changing the formula the way that it was originally enacted, through a lawsuit.

Support Excellence in Education (SEEK) was developed as part of the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 (KERA.).

KERA came about after the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that the state's method of funding education was unconstitutional because it was not fair to poorer school districts. The ruling was prompted by a lawsuit filed by several poorer school districts, including Dayton Independent Schools in Campbell County.

Before KERA, schools relied on revenue generated from local property taxes and a subsidy from the state that was roughly the same for all districts.

Since KERA and the establishment of the SEEK formula, school districts still raise money locally, but the poorest districts receive more from the state.

Part of their subsidy comes from revenue taken from the wealthier school districts, including Boone County, Fort Thomas, Beechwood and other Northern Kentucky districts.

"Now you have inequity with the larger districts and the growth districts," Walton said.

So Walton suggests those districts use the same strategy the poorer districts used in the 1980s: file litigation challenging the funding formula.

"The poorer districts did the right thing when they weren't being funded," he said. "(Filing suit) is not what you want to do, but unfortunately it might be what we have to do."

Schickel agreed, saying more funding could help cut the number of Boone County students - about 4,400 - that spend at least part of their day in trailers converted to classrooms.

"The current decision was an interpretation of what fair and equitable is under the constitution and it was relief for the poor districts," he said. "But now we need relief in our growth districts. We have children in trailers; we need relief."

Boone County Board of Education Chairman Ed Massey said he appreciates the candidates' concerns and strategies, but he said a lawsuit would take years to litigate and do little to help with the district's explosive growth. For the past several years the district, the third largest in Kentucky, has grown by enough students to build a new school a year.

Massey urges legislators to continue working on a political and policy solution. "I appreciate the concept (of litigation) and if we have no other choice we'll do what we have to do," said Massey, a lawyer. "But that gives no immediate relief as we continue to grow every year. A lawsuit has to be a last resort because it will be expensive, we would have to join other districts in doing it and it could take 10 to 12 years."

The candidates defended using litigation as a remedy.

"I don't think it's Republican or Democrat," Walton said. "It's the next step when you have tried to do everything you can legislatively."

Schickel said pursuing legal action is "in line with my political views because it is a Constitutional remedy."

"I speak for myself, and not the (Republican) party," he said.

The 11th Senate District includes Boone and Gallatin counties and Kenton County precincts in Crescent Springs, Crestview Hills, Erlanger, Fort Mitchell and Lakeside Park.

The seat is being vacated by Sen. Dick Roeding, R-Lakeside Park, who is retiring. There is no Democrat in the race.