Page:Lake View School District No. 25 v. Huckabee, 351 Ark. 31 (2002).pdf/26

56 The State first contends that this court did not remand this case in Lake View II for a compliance trial on adequacy under Article 14, but only for a trial on equality under Article 2, §§ 2, 3, and 18. The State is incorrect. In Lake View II, this court remanded the case to the trial court for a determination of whether the post-1994 legislation had satisfied the two constitutional deficiencies underscored by Judge Imber in her 1994 order. Judge Imber had concluded that the school-funding system failed as inadequate under Article 14 and inequitable under Article 2 of the Arkansas Constitution. Indeed, Lake View had filed a separate lawsuit contesting school funding as constitutionally inadequate, and the trial court properly approved a nonsuit of that action by Lake View because adequacy issues were already before the court in the compliance trial. The State's argument is meritless.

a. Adequacy Study.
The keystone of the State's adequacy argument is that an adequate education in Arkansas is impossible to define. We observe that on this point, the Department of Education and the General Assembly may be at odds. In her 1994 order, Judge Imber stated that there had been no studies on the per-student cost to provide "a general, suitable and efficient" educational opportunity to Arkansas schoolchildren. In 1995, the Arkansas General Assembly seized upon that theme and called for an adequacy study: (c) The State Board of Education shall devise a process for involving teachers, school administrators, school boards, and parents in the definition of an "adequate" education for Arkansas students.

(d) The State Board shall seek public guidance in defining anadequate education and shall submit proposed legislation defining adequacy to the Joint Interim Committee on Education prior to December 31, 1996. Act 917 of 1995, § 6(c-d).

Despite this directive from the General Assembly, nothing has been done by the Department of Education, and seven years have passed. Judge Kilgore echoed this in his 2001 order: