Page:Lake View School District No. 25 v. Huckabee, 351 Ark. 31 (2002).pdf/29

Rh economic, social, and political systems to enable the student to make informed choices; (iii) sufficient understanding of governmental processes to enable the student to understand the issues that affect his or her community, state, and nation; (iv) sufficient self-knowledge and knowledge of his or her mental and physical wellness; (v) sufficient grounding in the arts to enable each student to appreciate his or her cultural and historical heritage; (vi) sufficient training or preparation for advanced training in either academic or vocational fields so as to and pursue life work intelligently; and (vii) sufficient levels of academic or vocational skills to enable public school students to compete favorably with their counterparts in surrounding states, in academics or in the job market. Rose, 790 S.W.2d at 212. Many of the "Rose standards," as we will call them, were adopted by our General Assembly with Act 1108 and Act 1307 in 1997, as has already been set forth in this opinion.

In addition to the State's argument that an adequate education is incapable of definition, it further contends that there is no correlation between enhanced school funding and better student performance. For example, it argues that more money has been spent on education since the DuPree decision in 1983, and student performance has not appreciably improved. The State points to the ACTAPP program for assessing and evaluating student performance in English and mathematical skills as a positive step the State has recently taken. The State also fiercely contends that the Arkansas Constitution does not require pre-school programs such as those, it contends, were mandated by Judge Kilgore.

b. Educational Deficiencies.
What the State does not address are Arkansas' abysmal rankings in certain key areas respecting education. What follows is a compendium of the trial court's findings, which the State does not contest:
 * Arkansas ranks fiftieth among the states in per capita state and local government expenditures for elementary and secondary education.