The question of whether Montana finances an adequate public education system was back in court.
A coalition led by school districts is in a Helena courtroom this week, asking a district judge to rule that the state has not complied with his 2004 order that said Montana must define a “quality public education” and design a funding system to pay for it, according to an article in the Helena Independent Record.
Funding is up since then, but because of inflation and the one-time nature of some of the state appropriations, Montana doesn’t have a system in place that sustains a quality education, Billings school superintendent Jack Copps testified.
Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, issued a news release Monday criticizing the school districts for continuing the litigation.
“This is an example of taxpayers suing taxpayers and taxpayers paying for lawyers on both sides,” he said. “This is money that could be going towards other things like teacher salaries or technology in the classroom.”
Schweitzer said the 2005 and 2007 legislatures have indeed taken steps to define what is meant by a “quality education” and increase funding to local school districts by 27% to meet that definition.
