Senate resolution would deny schools ability to sue South Dakota

From Rapid City Journal

By Kayla Gahagan

Posted: Wednesday, February 3rd 2010

Should South Dakota schools be permitted to sue the state?

Voters may get the chance to decide.

A Senate majority resolution to amend the constitution was introduced into the Senate on Wednesday to prohibit school districts from supporting or funding any legal proceedings challenging the state over the constitution. If passed by legislators, the amendment could be put on the November ballot.

SJR7 is a "direct attack" on school districts, said Scott Abdallah, attorney for the South Dakota Coalition of Schools, the group supporting the current education funding lawsuit against the state over adequate funding.

He questioned why the resolution doesn't include townships, cities, and counties, which also have the right to challenge the state when members believe their constitutional rights have been violated.

"It's only attacking school districts and has singled them out," Abdallah said.

Senate Majority Leader Dave Knudson said Wednesday there has been a "strong feeling" that the lawsuit was a waste of taxpayer money.

A group of parents filed the education-funding constitutional challenge in June 2006, saying the state was violating the South Dakota Constitution by inadequately funding school districts.

Circuit Judge Lori Wilbur of Pierre initially ruled that it was illegal for schools to fund the lawsuit, saying it was the local school districts' role to educate and the Legislature's duty to provide the resources for the districts to educate. She said there was no proof that the six districts highlighted in the trial were failing to provide students with an adequate education.

A unanimous state Supreme Court overturned Wilbur's ruling last year, saying that because the South Dakota Constitution creates school districts and makes them beneficiaries of some funding sources, they have standing to sue and authority to fund the lawsuit.

Wilbur's ruling did not prevent a trial in the constitutional challenge. The South Dakota Coalition of Schools withdrew as a party and the trial proceeded with only a handful of students and their parents as plaintiffs.

Wilbur ruled in April 2009, that the school funding system is constitutional. The South Dakota Coalition of Schools intends to appeal that ruling to the Supreme Court, as well.

Knudson said the court has already decided that the legislature can't remedy the situation and questioned why districts would continue funding litigation that has already been decided.

"If I were them, I would be practical and look at things that would produce more money," he said.

That's the point of the lawsuit, Abdallah said. More than 90 districts out of 160 supported or gave financial support for the initial lawsuit, trying to send legislators the message that "the system is broken and kids are suffering," he said.

"If they refuse to come up with a solution, we are forced to go to court," he said.

Contact Kayla Gahagan at 394-8410 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)