Steele Hays

“ Education becomes the essential prerequisite that allows our citizens to be able to appreciate, claim and effectively realize their established rights. The opening phrase to our constitutional mandate for a public school system underscores the truth of the principle. ”

“ Freedom and independence.—All men are created equally free and independent, and have certain inherent and inalienable rights, amongst which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty; of acquiring, possessing and protecting property and reputation, and of pursuing their own happiness. To secure these rights the governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. ”

“ The trial court found the educational opportunity of the children in this state should not be controlled by the fortuitous circumstance of residence, and we concur in that view. Such a system only promotes greater opportunities for the advantaged while diminishing the opportunities for the disadvantaged.
Those jurisdictions finding no equal protection violation in a system based on district wealth generally uphold the system of funding by finding a legitimate state purpose in maintaining local control. ”

“ Our task is much more narrowly defined: it is to determine whether the trial court committed prejudicial legal error in determining whether the state school financing system at issue before it was violative of our state constitutional provisions guaranteeing equal protection of the laws insofar as it denies equal educational opportunity to the public school students of this state. ”

“ For some districts to supply the barest necessities and others to have programs generously endowed does not meet the requirements of the constitution. Bare and minimal sufficiency does trot translate into equal educational opportunity. "Equal protection is not addressed to minimal sufficiency but rather to the unjustifiable inequalities of state action." San Antonio School District v. Rodriquez, 411 U.S. 1, 70 (1972) . Marshall, J., dissenting.
Appellants also submit that the reason appellees are lacking in funds is not that they are property poor but that they under assessed. ”

“ If a majority of the qualified voters in said school district voting in the annual school election shall approve the rate of tax so proposed by the Board of Directors, then the tax at the rate so approved shall be collected as provided by law. In the event a majority of said qualified electors voting in said annual school election shall disapprove the proposed rate of tax, then the tax shall be collected at the rate approved in the last preceding annual school election. ”

“ In 1978-79, only 7% of the pupils resided in school districts with over $1,500 per pupil in state-local revenues, while over 21% resided in districts with less than $1000 in state-local revenues, and 55% of the districts were below the state mean. This great disparity among the districts' property wealth and the current state funding system as it is now applied does not equalize the educational revenues available to the school districts, but only widens the gap. ”

“ The trial court found the present system to be in violation of the constitutional provisions in question, which decision we affirm. We will first comment on the trial court's finding and then address the points raised on appeal.
The funding for Arkansas schools comes from three sources: state revenues provide 51.6%, local revenues 38.1%, and federal revenues 10.3%. The majority of state aid is distributed under the Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) . In 1978-79 MFP constituted 77.1% of all state aid. ”

“ Poll tax—School district tax—Budget Approval of tax rate by electors.—The General Assembly shall provide for the support of common schools by general law, including an annual per capita tax of one dollar, to be assessed on every male inhabitant of this State over the age of twenty-one years ”

“ Under this section of the act, half of the remaining funds are distributed under a flat grant on a per pupil basis. Districts receive the same amount of aid under this provision irrespective of local property wealth and revenue raised. The remaining funds under the equalization provision are then distributed under a formula directed at equalizing the disparity between the poor and wealthy districts. Of the total allocated under this program in 1979-80, this accounted for only 6.8% of MFP aid. ”

“ Clover Bend School District No. 12 of Lawrence County, individually and as a Representative of All School Districts Requiring Minimum Foundation Program Aid Funds to Provide their Students a Minimum Level of Education, Little Rock School District, North Little Rock School District.
↑ § 3. Equality before the law.—The equality of all persons before the law is recognized, and shall ever remain inviolate; nor shall any citizen ever be deprived of any right, privilege or immunity, nor exempted from any burden or duty, on account of race, color or previqus condition. ”

“ Privileges and immunities—Equality.—The General Assembly shall not grant to any citizen or class of citizens privileges or immunities which upon the same terms shall not equally belong to all citizens. ”