Missouri says it is exceeding school spending requirement
(09/21/07)
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- State attorneys asserted Thursday that Missouri is far exceeding a constitutional requirement for public school spending as a judge sought to wrap up the lone lingering aspect of a so-far unsuccessful lawsuit by schools. After hearing four hours of testimony, the judge concurred the state seems to be spending more than enough, though he did not issue a formal ruling...
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School funding battle
School districts claim rural tax collectors are costing them money
(04/01/07) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Suburban school districts claim they're being shortchanged by inaccurate property tax collection in rural areas, part of their overall push to rebuild Missouri's school funding system. Attorneys representing the school districts told Cole County Judge Richard Callahan Friday that they believe rural counties undervalue property and don't collect enough local taxes to support their schools. ...
Data could help both sides in school funding case
(12/29/06) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- How much money does it take to provide students an adequate education? That question is at the heart of a court battle unfolding in a few days in the capital city. In preparing for a trial starting Wednesday, the collection of school districts suing the state and the attorney general's office agreed to tailor their efforts and research to 36 of the state's 524 public school districts...
Two-thirds of districts in lawsuit affected by requirement
(06/12/06) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Stuck between a rock and a hard place. Backed into a corner. A lose-lose situation. The proverbial Catch-22. Such cliches could aptly describe what legislators have done to about 180 school districts. A bill awaiting the governor's approval makes various changes to education law and easily won support in both the House and Senate. But the underlying bill has a provision that makes many school officials bristle...
Two-thirds of districts in lawsuit affected by requirement
(06/12/06) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Stuck between a rock and a hard place. Backed into a corner. A lose-lose situation. The proverbial Catch-22. Such cliches could aptly describe what legislators have done to about 180 school districts. A bill awaiting the governor's approval makes various changes to education law and easily won support in both the House and Senate. But the underlying bill has a provision that makes many school officials bristle...
Nixon: Blunt's plan could harm defense for school suit
(12/22/05) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Attorney General Jay Nixon asserted Wednesday that it would be harder for him to defend the state's school funding method in court if a plan backed by Gov. Matt Blunt is enacted mandating an amount schools must spend on student instruction...
Leading Republican lawmaker to revive college voucher proposal
(12/13/05) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A top Republican lawmaker plans to revive a proposal to distribute state money for higher education to individual students, who then could use the scholarships for public or private universities. House Speaker Pro Tem Carl Bearden, R-St. Charles, introduced a similar higher education voucher plan last year that used full-time enrollment figures at colleges to divide the money on a per-student basis. The bill received committee approval but never made it to the full House...
Officials worry education plan would undercut local control
(12/06/05) Several members of the Cape Girardeau Board of Education urged local lawmakers Monday to oppose a proposal requiring 65 percent of district funds to be spent on classroom instruction. State Sen. Jason Crowell and Rep. Nathan Cooper, both Cape Girardeau Republicans, heard from board members that the idea undermines local control of schools. The board held a special meeting to talk to the lawmakers...
Cape school board withdraws from funding lawsuit
(08/30/05) School leaders said funding formula dispute is no longer an issue because the district will receive more state aid. The Cape Girardeau School District has dropped its legal battle over state funding. The school board voted unanimously Monday night to drop its participation in a lawsuit brought by more than 300 school districts which challenged the state's old funding formula on the grounds that it was inequitable and inadequate...
School board may withdraw from lawsuit
(08/29/05) Cape Girardeau's public schools could receive more than $3.86 million in added state funding over the next seven fiscal years combined. That has Cape Girardeau School District officials looking at whether to withdraw from a lawsuit in which more than 200 school districts challenged the state's old funding formula on the grounds that it was inequitable and inadequate...
Small school districts garner extra money
(06/12/05) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Given that the state distributes roughly $3 billion a year to local schools, an extra $15 million may seem insignificant. For Missouri's smallest school systems, however, that amount could make a major difference in how much state funding they receive...
Kansas ruling could hold implications for Missouri
(06/09/05) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A recent Kansas Supreme Court ruling declaring insufficient the Kansas Legislature's efforts to improve public school funding could offer some indications as to how a similar Missouri case will unfold, according to the attorney for a group of Missouri school districts...
Schools' funding lawsuit still on
(06/08/05) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Saying the Missouri Legislature has failed to fix serious flaws in how the state funds public education, a group of school districts announced Tuesday that it won't back off its lawsuit asking a court to declare the system unconstitutional...
Education lawsuit likely to continue
(06/05/05) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Despite the recent passage of legislation to overhaul Missouri's system for funding public education, a pending lawsuit challenging how the state distributes financial aid to local school districts is likely to continue. More than 300 of Missouri's 524 public school districts, including 52 in Southeast Missouri, are involved in the case, which was launched in January 2004. ...
Blunt touts education funding while visiting Cape
(05/27/05) Commending the joint effort between both the House, Senate and his own office, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt was in Cape Girardeau Thursday to symbolically sign the recently passed school funding bill. State legislators, city officials and administrators from local school districts gathered at Central High School Thursday for the event...
Gov. Matt Blunt promotes $158 million education budget
(05/26/05) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Matt Blunt on Wednesday kicked off a two-day, cross-state tour promoting a $158 million spending increase on public school programs as a campaign promise kept. The Republican governor claimed the state spending -- which comes on top of the $3.6 billion already going to school programs -- represents the largest increase in the past four years...
Schools wonder about formula funding
(05/23/05) Show me the money. That's the attitude local superintendents have taken in response to the Missouri Legislature's adoption of a new education funding system. The new system, which replaces the 12-year-old foundation formula currently in use, is intended to distribute funds more fairly to Missouri's public schools...
House debates special fund for small schools
(05/11/05) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Many of Missouri's smallest school districts would have to raise their local taxes in order to access a special $15 million fund for such districts under a change the House of Representatives on Tuesday made to legislation to overhaul the state's system for funding public education...
Extra money for summer school programs in jeopardy
(05/11/05) Proposed changes to Missouri's education funding system may eventually mean cutbacks to summer school programs in local districts. The current summer school funding system was put in place in 1989 as an incentive for more districts to offer those programs...
School funding plans have short shelf life
(05/09/05) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Former state Sen. Harold Caskey, a chief architect of Missouri's existing education funding formula, often used to say that such formulas only have a shelf life of about a decade before they become obsolete. The legislature last did a major rewrite of the formula in 1993. Sure enough, by 2003 most lawmakers acknowledged the system had become constitutionally out of whack...
House panel resurrects education funding bill
(05/05/05) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- With political pressure mounting, a House committee on Wednesday revived an education funding bill it had defeated last week. After making modifications intended to appease urban and suburban lawmakers who helped derail the bill, the committee voted 15-8 to forward it to the full House for further debate. All five Republicans who previously opposed the measure, joined by one Democrat, switched sides to put the bill back on track...
Education bill brings threat by governor
(05/04/05) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Matt Blunt on Tuesday said he will call the Missouri Legislature into a special legislative session if it fails to produce a new funding system for public schools before its scheduled adjournment on May 13. After passing the Senate with relative ease, legislation to rewrite the formula for distributing state money to local school districts hit a snag in the House Special Committee on Education Funding, which last Thursday voted 14-9 against forwarding the measure to the full House. ...
House panel spikes school funding bill
(04/29/05) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A House committee on Thursday killed a bill to overhaul Missouri's system for funding public schools, but a resurrection appears likely heading into the final two weeks of the legislative session. After spending several days recrafting the bill, the House Special Committee on Education Funding voted 14-9 to reject it. ...
Senate pulls marathon debate on school funds
(04/13/05) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- When lawmakers began tackling the thorny issue of overhauling Missouri's system for distributing public funds earlier this year, Senate President Pro Tem Michael Gibbons feared the effort inevitably would deteriorate into "the legislative equivalent of a food fight." To his pleasant surprise that hasn't happened...
Funding bill would add money to school districts
(04/13/05) The Cape Girardeau School District no longer would be hold-harmless and all Southeast Missouri districts would receive an increase in funding under a new funding formula currently being considered by the state legislature. While many changes are still likely to take place before the final version of the formula is passed, local educators say the plan looks beneficial so far...
Government review panel hears from education agencies
(04/12/05) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Members of a special commission working to overhaul Missouri government discussed on Monday whether major changes in the structure of the state's two education departments might make sense. The possibilities include merging the separate Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Department of Higher Education or establishing a "super board" of higher education that would have real authority over Missouri's public colleges and universities...
Schools in funding suit used as model for new formula
(02/28/05) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- As state lawmakers work on a new way to fund public schools, they are basing their method on what "successful" school districts spend to educate their students. But among those being used as a model for the new formula are some districts that have sued the state to get more money...
Governor's school plan has three-point focus
(02/06/05) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- In setting education at the top of his legislative agenda, Gov. Matt Blunt proposes radical changes in how Missouri pays for public schools. As with any major shake-up in the status quo, however, Blunt's ideas are destined to face some political and constitutional hurdles...
Blunt kicks off school funding debate
(01/05/05) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Key players in the looming legislative effort to overhaul Missouri's system for funding public schools shared ideas Tuesday during an education summit organized by governor-elect Matt Blunt. Blunt, a Republican who takes office Monday, acknowledged the issue will be difficult to tackle given the competing interests that stand to gain or lose from a rewrite of the complex formula for distributing state financial aid to local school districts...
Nixon - One-time offer on school suit
(11/22/04) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Don't miss this one-time-only opportunity! When advertisers use such promotions, they spark interest -- and often skepticism. So understandably, there was a mixture of wariness and willingness after Democratic Attorney General Jay Nixon announced that he wants to give Missouri's new Republican governor and legislature the "opportunity" to fix the state's school funding formula...
School funding to be key Missouri issue
(11/14/04) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- With new legislators and a new governor in January, elected officials say changing the state's method of paying for public schools will be a priority next year. They have strong motivation this time around, as well -- a lawsuit was filed in January challenging the current formula as unfair and inadequate. The state also asked the judge in that case to put the matter on hold to give the legislature and governor time to craft a new system...
State hires outside lawyers in school funding lawsuit
(09/29/04) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The attorney general's office has brought in outside lawyers to help it defend a lawsuit challenging the state's school funding formula. One lawyer is already working on the case and handled issues before Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan in a procedural hearing Tuesday. ...
Legislator discusses funding at school board meeting
(06/22/04) Education funding for next year will increase, but solutions to Missouri's school funding system are still remote, a state lawmaker told members of the Cape Girardeau School Board Monday night. State Rep. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, spoke at the board's regular meeting about education-related issues from the past and upcoming legislative sessions...
Missouri's average teacher salary lower than officials thought
(06/02/04) Missouri teacher salaries are among the lowest in the United States and have been for longer than state officials realized. In an annual report released Thursday by the National Education Association, Missouri's average teacher salary ranked 44th in the nation, a drop of nine steps from last year's ranking of 35th. However, officials with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education discovered Tuesday that they'd reported incorrect data to NEA in past reports...
Columbia school board to appeal tax levy decision
(05/23/04) COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The Columbia School board has decided to appeal a court ruling that said the district illegally set its tax rate high enough to collect more revenue than the district's declared needs. The Missouri Court of Appeals ruling, issued Tuesday, might have implications for other school districts, cities and counties, school attorney Alex Bartlett said Friday before the board voted to appeal...
School fund increase has muted effect
(05/14/04) Projections for next year's state funding are looking up for local school districts, but some educators say the additional funding's impact will be minimized after years of cutbacks. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released district-by-district estimates Wednesday for the amount of money schools may receive next year compared with 2003-2004 and 2002-2003 funding levels...
Cape schools join group seeking role in lawsuit
(04/24/04) A coalition made up of 65 school districts -- including Cape Girardeau's -- has filed a petition to intervene in a lawsuit against the state filed by more than half of Missouri's 524 school districts, who are challenging the state's method of funding education...
Education chief says No Child Left Behind has enough funds
(04/20/04) COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The No Child Left Behind law is "sufficiently funded," Education Secretary Rod Paige said Monday, replying to criticism that the law passes along billions in costs to states and local school districts. "There is no unfunded mandate as far as the No Child Left Behind Act," Paige said during a forum hosted by Rep. Kenny Hulshof, R-Mo., at Columbia's Rock Bridge High School...
Missouri House passes broad education legislation
(04/01/04) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Teachers could get more pay for performing extra duties, and districts would have leeway to offer bonuses for hard-to-fill jobs under legislation approved by the House passed Wednesday. The measure by Rep. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, passed the House by an announced vote of 110-24 and now moves to the Senate...
Parents, students join school funding lawsuit
(03/21/04) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- As a parent of two children in the East Carter County School District, Robert Eudaley of Ellisinore doesn't care about the bickering among state leaders concerning education funding. He just wants his children to get the high level of educational opportunities that those leaders promise but in his view fail to deliver...
Tax revenue up in February; Holden waiting on school funds
(03/06/04) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- State tax revenue continued to grow in February despite a significant rise in the amount of refunds to individual income taxpayers. Missouri's net general revenue rose 4 percent in February over the same month a year earlier, and was up 5.4 percent through the first eight months of the 2004 fiscal year, which started last July, the Department of Revenue reported Friday...
Schools cut teachers but reward top officials
(02/21/04) More than one-fourth of Missouri school districts increased the salaries of their superintendents this school year even as tight budgets forced them to lay off teachers or not fill vacant positions, an Associated Press review of education documents shows...
Education rally draws thousands to Capitol
(02/17/04) Students, teachers, parents and principals converged on the Capitol Monday to chastise government leaders for cuts to public school funding and to ask for more money for their schools. About 2,000 rally participants chanted "S-O-S, Save Our Schools" and raised homemade banners urging elected officials to make children their priority. ...
School funding plan faces uphill battle
(02/07/04) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A consultant's proposal for revising Missouri's school funding system will likely be opposed by lawmakers from districts where state aid would decline, the chairman of a legislative committee predicted. The plan by Craig Wood, a University of Florida education professor, would reduce state aid to 171 of Missouri's 524 school districts, including Cape Girardeau, by an average of 5 percent. ...
Consultant offers finance options for school aid revision
(01/27/04) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A committee studying ways to revise Missouri's school funding formula heard Monday from a consultant who recommended two plans that would cost the state an additional $710 million to $1.5 billion a year. John Augenblick, head of a Denver-based firm that advises states on school finance issues, has focused chiefly on the adequacy of state aid for schools, rather than on the issue of equity...
Districts plan to intervene in funding case
(01/27/04) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Dozens of school districts with a distinct point of view plan to intervene in a lawsuit challenging Missouri's method of funding elementary and secondary education. The lawsuit, filed earlier this month by 243 of Missouri's 524 school districts, claims the state spends too little on public schools and does not distribute the money fairly...
Funding lawsuit worries Cape schools
(01/10/04) Nearly half of Missouri's 524 school districts have joined a lawsuit against the state's funding system, but Cape Girardeau public school officials are worried the suit may hurt their district. The Cape Girardeau School District is the only K-12 school district in Cape Girardeau, Bollinger and Scott counties that hasn't joined the Committee for Educational Equality, a group challenging the equity and adequacy of the state's current method of funding public education...
Holden blames legislature while supporting education lawsuit
(01/10/04) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Bob Holden told the state Board of Education on Friday that he supports the more than 240 school districts that filed a lawsuit this week challenging the state's school funding formula. Holden, a Democrat, said lawmakers left districts with no choice but to go to court because they have not sufficiently funded education...
Schools file lawsuit over funding for education
(01/07/04) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Claiming the Missouri Legislature has failed to fulfill its constitutional obligation to adequately fund public education and fairly distribute the money, 243 Missouri school systems are turning to the courts for relief. The Committee for Educational Equality, which includes 48 Southeast Missouri school districts, filed a lawsuit in Cole County Circuit Court on Tuesday that seeks to have the state's current funding system declared unconstitutional...
School funding overhaul unlikely this session
(01/05/04) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- On Tuesday, an attorney representing 229 Missouri school districts plans to file a long-expected lawsuit challenging the way the state funds public schools. His plaintiffs will include school officials, students, parents and taxpayers. And his claim will be twofold -- that Missouri fails to provide enough money to schools, and that the money it does provide is handed out unfairly...
School funding disparity likely to be focus of attention in '04
(01/03/04) FESTUS, Mo. -- A roomful of children sitting on bleachers hesitantly search for the notes to "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" on their recorders. Their music teacher, Joshua Rhine, encourages them and eventually relents, playing the music on a stereo for them to follow along...
Funds easing school budget woes
(12/11/03) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Poplar Bluff, Jackson and Sikeston school districts were the biggest area beneficiaries of Gov. Bob Holden's recent decision to release $75 million he had previously withheld from the public education budget. Area school officials say the action has eased -- though not necessarily eliminated -- the need to deficit spend this year and should allow some districts to carry slightly stronger budget reserves into the next fiscal year. ...
Holden's education cuts backed by court
(12/10/03) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- In a win for executive authority but a loss for cash-strapped school districts, the Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously affirmed the governor's constitutional power to reduce spending for public schools below levels set by the legislature...
Jackson joining schools' lawsuit
(11/25/03) With the possibility of financial cuts looming, officials in the Jackson School District have joined the effort to sue the state over its funding system. At their Monday night meeting, members of the Jackson School Board voted to join with the Committee for Education Equality, a group of nearly 230 districts challenging the constitutionality of Missouri's current formula for distributing state aid to schools...
Judge backs governor's power to cut school funds
(11/11/03) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Constitution doesn't shield public education spending from midyear cuts when the overall state budget is out of balance, a judge ruled Monday. However, the state Supreme Court will be asked to review the decision and offer a definitive opinion on whether a governor can withhold approved funding for public schools or if he must target other state departments when cuts are necessary...
Suit against Holden challenged by Nixon
(10/15/03) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Attorney General Jay Nixon's office has asked a judge to dismiss with prejudice a lawsuit challenging the governor's constitutional power to reduce approved spending for public schools in order to keep the state budget in balance...
More schools join lawsuit challenging governor's authority
(10/03/03) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Nine more school districts have joined a lawsuit claiming Gov. Bob Holden unconstitutionally withheld $190 million in approved spending for Missouri public schools, while several state officials and agencies have been dropped as defendants...
State may seek dismissal of education funding suit
(09/25/03) Marc Powers Southeast Missourian JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The state attorney general's office may ask a judge to throw out a lawsuit claiming Gov. Bob Holden unconstitutionally withheld $190 million in approved spending for public schools. The lawsuit,...
School groups push for education funds
(09/06/03) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Educators and school lobbying groups on Friday urged lawmakers to pump substantially more money into education to reverse the devastating effects they say state budget cuts have had on most Missouri school districts. Dr. Larry Ewing, superintendent of the Fort Osage School District in Jackson County, said the refusal of the Republican-controlled Missouri Legislature to consider tax increases has shifted more of the burden of funding education to local taxpayers, who are being asked to make up lost state revenue by approving higher property levies.. ...
Challenge to school tax levies heard in high court
(09/05/03) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- As various school systems prepare lawsuits over cuts in state education funding, the Missouri Supreme Court on Thursday heard a case that could invalidate tax levy increases imposed by more than 100 school districts. The case claims that a constitutional change Missouri voters approved five years ago conflicts with the state constitution's revenue-limiting Hancock Amendment...
School lawsuits could have big impact
(08/24/03) Funding hopes for Missouri's public schools could be dramatically affected -- positively or negatively, depending on final rulings -- by any of several lawsuits that challenge the amount of state funding, how equitably the funding is distributed, whether some district can raise levies without a vote and what standards should be followed in providing special services to disabled students...
Three school districts in Kansas City area file lawsuit over ed
(08/16/03) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Three Kansas City area school districts sued the state Friday, claiming Gov. Bob Holden violated the Missouri Constitution by withholding $190 million that had been appropriated for public schools this year. The Fort Osage, Lee's Summit and Liberty districts are asking a Cole County judge to reverse the governor's action and order the money to be distributed to schools. ...
State courts shouldn't set tax policy
(08/10/03) When Missouri legislators convene next January for the 2004 session, they are likely to be under a cloud of a lawsuit filed by more than 100 of the state's 500-plus school districts seeking more state revenue. Organizers of the lawsuit say they will make a strong case that the current school-funding formula needs to be replaced with a mechanism that is more equitable and more adequate...
29 regional school districts join funding suit
(08/05/03) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Twenty-nine Southeast Missouri school districts have joined a statewide coalition of mostly rural school systems in a planned lawsuit that will seek increased state funding for public education and a fairer distribution of the money...
Missouri schools prepare lawsuit for funds
(08/02/03) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A decade ago when a circuit court judge famously declared that Missouri schools ranged from the "golden" to the "god-awful," state lawmakers overhauled the system for funding public schools to ease the financial disparity between rich and poor districts...
State education budget battle ends
(06/28/03) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The six-month battle over the state budget finally ended Friday when Gov. Bob Holden agreed to sign education spending bills he had twice vetoed. The governor made the surprise announcement in a speech before Missouri school officials at the Lake of the Ozarks at the same time the Senate was taking action to send the two spending bills to him for the third time...
State budget fight may spawn lawsuits
(06/24/03) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Every twist and turn in the budget showdown between Democratic Gov. Bob Holden and Republican legislative leaders has raised new constitutional questions but few definitive answers. That recent events have created so much uncertainty isn't surprising. Never in modern Missouri history has the state been this close to a partial government shutdown...
Federal funds help foundation formula
(06/08/03) In the midst of severe state budget cuts, Missouri legislators say an unexpected influx of $390 million in federal aid could be the solution to school districts' financial concerns. Under a plan approved this week by the House of Representatives, more than $72 million of the federal funds would go toward public education...
Scott City, others prepare for lawsuit
(05/16/03) A chance to increase much-needed funding through a lawsuit against the state has divided Southeast Missouri school districts. All local school officials agree that additional funding is imperative, but reluctance to seek a remedy through the courts is keeping some districts from joining a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the state's current funding method. It's a complicated math equation known as the foundation formula...
School funding suit threatened again
(04/29/03) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Facing the prospect of a cut in state funding, some school districts are laying the groundwork for a new lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Missouri's school funding efforts. The drive for a new legal challenge is backed by two of the same people who successfully sued the state more than a decade ago...
Missouri education funding may face overhaul
(04/20/03) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- There seems to be wide agreement that Missouri's method of distributing money to local schools is broken. But fixing one of the most complex and critical aspects of state government will prove a difficult and politically controversial task...
School officals talk of lawsuit as funding gap widens
(02/27/03)
POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Concerned over growing inequities in school funding, inequities that were supposed to have been solved with Senate Bill 380 10 years ago, 17 superintendents and other school administrators met with State Sen. Bill Foster and State Rep. Gayle Kingery last week. The possibility of a lawsuit came up, but the discussion centered more on what small districts will be facing if their financial situation doesn't improve soon... |