SPLIT SUPREME COURT, CONT.
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Thursday, December 13, 2012 Registration: 6:00 PM Program: 6:30 PM
Embassy Suites Little Rock 11301 Financial Centre Parkway Little Rock, AR 72211 From I-430 take Shackleford/Kanis loop exit (Exit 6). Right onto Shackleford Road. Left onto Financial Centre Parkway.
Featuring: Kathryn Chenault, MD Randall Trudell, MD MS LifeLines® Ambassador, Kathy H. Speakers are sponsored by EMD Serono, Inc. BRIAN CHILSON
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KOPSKY: Will hold lawmakers feet to the fire.
Little Rock Chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keepers And
Present
Great Escapes: Art by Animals of the Little rock Zoo Featuring a silent Auction of Animal Paintings and Ornaments Painted by the Animals for sale
December 12th, 2012 • 6-9pm
5815 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little rock, Ar 72207 (501) 664.0030 • www.boswellmourot.com
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DECEMBER 5, 2012
ARKANSAS TIMES
set a funding floor, not a ceiling. The state required that only the minimum foundation funding be equal. Amendment 74 allows districts to levy as much millage above the required 25 mills as voters will approve. Many school districts raise more money to spend on students by levying more than 25 mills. The Little Rock School District, for instance, taxes property at a 46.4 mill rate. Districts may keep the revenues raised by the additional mills. The disparity between districts like the LRSD and those that only levy the state-required 25 mills shrinks thanks to National School Lunch Act Funds that poorer districts receive. But education advocates say the system is still inequitable; in fact, many predicted even before last week’s ruling that a lawsuit over inequity could be on the horizon. In his majority opinion, Justice Paul Danielson (joined in the majority by Justices Karen Baker, Courtney Hudson Goodson and Donald Corbin) suggested that, if the state wanted to return to redistributing the excess revenues produced by the 25 mandated mills, it could provide a legislative solution. But Gov. Beebe and other officials fear that by proposing a statutory update to constitutional Amendment 74, the court is inviting litigation, or the dismantling of the current school funding system by future legislatures. On Friday, Arkansas Education Association president Donna Morey said her group would ask the legisla-
ture “to modify the statutes to clearly define the funding structures for schools.” Asked in a news conference if such a remedy might invite litigation, Bill Kopsky, executive director of the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, which partners with the AEA to advocate on education issues, said, “There are different ways to achieve a fix. I don’t think we know enough yet, but we’re going to hold [legislators’] feet to the fire.” In a Republican-controlled legislature, it would likely be difficult to convince a sufficient number of Republicans, who have been generally sympathetic to ideas of local control of school districts, to institute a fix. House Majority Leader Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Hot Springs), who previously served on the school board of the Fountain Lake School District, a defendant in the Supreme Court case, has said he agreed with the court ruling. Meanwhile, the governor has indicated that the state plans to ask the Supreme Court to rehear the case. From his perspective, attorney David Matthews said he doesn’t see the decision as cause for alarm. “Everyone that’s been involved in Arkansas educational progress over the last 10 years feels proud of what’s happened, but also lives in abject fear that the least little decision could overturn that work. Any change causes folks to become very concerned. I don’t think this decision does that.”