State claims educational inadequacies have been remedied
June 1, 2002
Today, the Alabama Coalition for Equity, the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program filed a motion to strike statements made in a brief submitted to the Alabama Supreme Court by Attorney General Bill Pryor claiming that Alabama's public school system now meets constitutional standards. Almost a decade has elapsed since the entry of the Liability Order. Alabama's public schools continue to suffer from inequitable funding and inadequate resources. As a result, Alabama school children currently receive a grossly deficient and unconstitutional education permeating virtually every aspect of the state school system.
Financing
Key education leaders have admitted under oath in a Feb. 14, 2001, court proceeding that education funding in the state is still inequitable:
(1) "Very little, if any was accomplished since 1995 in raising our standard of support of public schools" -- Dr. Ira Harvey
(2) "I don't consider everyone to be equitably funded. No, I don't." -- Robert L. Morton, Assistant State Superintendent for Administration and Finance
(3) "… we've not made the financial commitment necessary to meet just what's on the books and what we're supposed to do…" -- Dr. Ed Richardson, State Superintendent of Education
Tremendous disparities still exist in the amounts of funds school systems have available per pupil:
(1) The system with the most funds available per pupil in 1998-99, Mountain Brook City, spent $7119.33 per pupil. By contrast, the system with the least funds available per pupil, Madison City, had $4417.36.
(2) Homewood City, with $6896.37 per pupil in '98-99, received $2552 per pupil from the State - just ten dollars fewer than Madison City, which received $2562 per pupil. But, Florence City which spent $6735.71 per pupil actually received more per pupil from the State ($2627) than Madison City.
(3) Among the southeast, Alabama ranks 15 out 16 in education spending per pupil and ranks 49th out of 51 nationally for fall enrollment in 1998-99 according to Ranking of the States 1999 a National Education Association publication.
Proration has exasperated an already dismal situation for many schools:
(1) Approximately one out of every five school systems will have to borrow money just to make it through the school year.
(2) Due to proration, class-sizes will increase and many schools will have to further delay much needed repairs, the purchase of up-to-date textbooks, and other necessary school supplies
Resources and programs
School systems lack basic facility repairs and school supplies:
(1) Butler Elementary School in Choctaw County had twelve portable classroom units this past school year, all more than 30 years old, whose deficiencies include "rain-damaged floors and 'huge holes' in the roof. One portable unit serves as the school's "gym," and children play basketball on dirt. The permanent facilities are similarly lacking, with books stacked in boxes because of a lack of shelves in the building, parts of which date back to 1937. " Robin DeMonia, "Run-Down Choctaw School Finds 'Angel,'" Birmingham News, March 19, 2001
(2) Students at Dallas County Elementary School hold raffles, not to fund class trips or other "extras," but simply to pay for "paper towels, floor wax and other much needed janitorial supplies."
In Mountain Brook, the school board has been able to furnish one computer for every four students and readily available internet access. By contrast, Dallas County's Brantley Elementary School has no internet access, and just one computer per seven students in grades k-3 and one per ten in grades 4-6.
Jack Dasis, the father of Andrea Dasis who testified in 1993 about the poor conditions in the Choctaw County School System told the Mobile Register that the Choctaw County schools remain in poor physical condition, and "their roofs still leak."
Karen Tolkkinen, "'Equity' Case Looms Over State," Mobile Register, April 1, 2001.
(3) The National Association of School Nurses recommends one nurse for every 750 children. In Alabama, there is one nurse for every 11,500 children. "School Medicine Feels Proration Pain," Montgomery Advertiser, May 21, 2001.
(4) According to a 2000 report by the National Education Association, "Modernizing Our Schools: What Will It Cost?", the total amount of funds needed to modernize Alabama schools is $2,310,853,117. Of that amount, $1,519,210,061 is the amount it would cost to modernize school infrastructure, with the additional $791,643,056 to go toward modernizing education technology.
Student performance
Student performance on national achievement tests ranks Alabama among the lowest throughout the nation:
(1) 2000 NAEP Mathematics Results
4th Grade Mathematics Exam: @ 85% scored below proficient
8th Grade Mathematics Exam: @ 80% scored below proficient
(2) 1998 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) Results:
4th Grade Reading Exam: @ 75% scored below proficient
8th Grade Reading Exam: @ 80% scored below proficient
8th Grade Writing Exam: @ 70% scored below proficient
(3) 1996 NAEP Science Results
8th Grade Science Exam: @ 80% scored below proficient
Approximately one third of Alabama's public schools remain unaccredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
According to Education Week Quality Counts 2001 Report Card:
(1) Only 38% of Alabama high schools offered Advanced Placement courses (2000).
(2) Only 27% of Alabama students actually took an upper-level mathematics course (1998).
(3) Only 19% of Alabama students actually took an upper-level science course (1998).
Educational inadequacies and inequities have not been remedied. In some situations, conditions are actually worse since the entry of the Liability Order. The purpose of the Equity Funding lawsuit and subsequently, the Proration lawsuit was to ensure that all of Alabama's school-aged children received an adequate and equitable education. The fact that the Alabama Supreme Court would enter an order in the Equity Funding case, sua sponta, while in the middle of an appeal in the Proration lawsuit is a clear act of judicial actitivism. The Supreme Court has on four prior occasions explicitly stated that the Liability order was a final and appealable order, but recent elections have changed the composition of the court, which now includes some justices who have been vocal in their disagreement with that rule.
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