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Tennessee's system for distributing tax money to public school systems was declared unconstitutional Tuesday by the state Supreme Court.
In its third such ruling in less than a decade, the court found unanimously that the system shortchanges rural districts and denies equal educational opportunities for students.
The decision could potentially cost the state government, already stretched financially, hundreds of millions of dollars.
The court, in a decision written by Justice E. Riley Anderson, said the plan adopted by the Legislature seven years ago doesn't equalize the pay between teachers in rural and urban school districts.
It also "fails to comply with the state's constitutional obligation to formulate and maintain a system that affords a substantially equal education opportunity for all students."
"Until that mandate is met, the inherent value of education will not be fully realized by all students in the state, regardless of where they live and attend school," he wrote.
The court leaves it up to the Legislature to fix the problem.
A state Supreme Court ruling in 1993 forced lawmakers to create a new education funding mechanism, known as the Basic Education Plan, or BEP. The case, which began as a lawsuit in 1988, returned to the state Supreme Court in 1995 for a second time.
BEP provided extra state funds to systems in counties with smaller tax bases, but the court found Tuesday that the funding formula was still flawed.
Anderson concluded that "in the end, the rural school districts continue to suffer the same type of constitutional inequities that were present 14 years ago when this litigation began."
The state has grappled with the question of how to fund state services for years. Gov. Don Sundquist's push for a package that included an income tax produced a heated three-year standoff in the General Assembly, which ended in July after a partial government shutdown. In the end, an income tax was not approved, but the state got the highest sales tax in the country -- nearly 10 cents on the dollar
In its third such ruling in less than a decade, the court found unanimously that the system shortchanges rural districts and denies equal educational opportunities for students.
The decision could potentially cost the state government, already stretched financially, hundreds of millions of dollars.
The court, in a decision written by Justice E. Riley Anderson, said the plan adopted by the Legislature seven years ago doesn't equalize the pay between teachers in rural and urban school districts.
It also "fails to comply with the state's constitutional obligation to formulate and maintain a system that affords a substantially equal education opportunity for all students."
"Until that mandate is met, the inherent value of education will not be fully realized by all students in the state, regardless of where they live and attend school," he wrote.
The court leaves it up to the Legislature to fix the problem.
A state Supreme Court ruling in 1993 forced lawmakers to create a new education funding mechanism, known as the Basic Education Plan, or BEP. The case, which began as a lawsuit in 1988, returned to the state Supreme Court in 1995 for a second time.
BEP provided extra state funds to systems in counties with smaller tax bases, but the court found Tuesday that the funding formula was still flawed.
Anderson concluded that "in the end, the rural school districts continue to suffer the same type of constitutional inequities that were present 14 years ago when this litigation began."
The state has grappled with the question of how to fund state services for years. Gov. Don Sundquist's push for a package that included an income tax produced a heated three-year standoff in the General Assembly, which ended in July after a partial government shutdown. In the end, an income tax was not approved, but the state got the highest sales tax in the country -- nearly 10 cents on the dollar
