Page:Lake View School District No. 25 v. Huckabee, 351 Ark. 31 (2002).pdf/4

34 education to each school child; that duty on the part of the State is the essential focal point of the Education Article and the performance of that duty is an absolute constitutional requirement; when the State fails in that duty, which the supreme court held was the case, the entire system of public education is placed in legal jeopardy.
 * 1) EDUCATION—STATE FAILED IN ITS CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY TO PROVIDE GENERAL, SUITABLE, & EFFICIENT SCHOOL-FUNDING SYSTEM—EDUCATION ARTICLE VIOLATED BY SCHOOL-FUNDING SYSTEM.—The supreme court concluded that the State had not fulfilled its constitutional duty to provide the children of Arkansas with a general, suitable, and efficient school-funding system; accordingly, the supreme court, affirming the trial court on the point, held that the existing school-funding system violated the Education Article of the Arkansas Constitution.
 * 2) SCHOOLS & SCHOOL DISTRICTS—SCHOOL FUNDING—DEFICIENCIES CAN SUSTAIN FINDINGS OF BOTH INADEQUACY & INEQUALITY.—There is considerable overlap between the issue of whether a school-funding system is inadequate and whether it is inequitable; deficiencies in certain public schools in certain school districts can sustain a finding of inadequacy but also, when compared to other schools in other districts, a finding of inequality.
 * 3) SCHOOLS & SCHOOL DISTRICTS—SCHOOL FUNDING—STATE GOVERNMENT MUST MEET OBLIGATION IF LOCAL GOVERNMENT CANNOT CARRY THE BURDEN.—For some districts to supply the barest necessities and others to have programs generously endowed does not meet constitutional requirements; bare and minimal sufficiency does not translate into equal educational opportunity; if local government fails, the state government must compel it to act, and if the local government cannot carry the burden, the state must itself meet its continuing obligation.
 * 4) SCHOOLS & SCHOOL DISTRICTS—SCHOOL FUNDING—TEST FOR EQUALITY IS ACTUAL MONEY SPENT PER STUDENT.—The measuring rod for equality in school funding is what money is actually being spent on the students; equalizing revenues simply does not resolve the problem of gross disparities in per-student spending among the school districts; the focus for deciding equality must be on the actual expenditures; the supreme court affirmed the trial court's ruling on this point.
 * 5) SCHOOLS & SCHOOL DISTRICTS—CLASSIFICATION BETWEEN POOR & RICH SCHOOL DISTRICTS—STATE'S SCHOOL-FUNDING FORMULA FOSTERED DISCRIMINATION BASED ON WEALTH.—