Adequacy suits.

Lindseth, Alfred A.

In "Adequately Fatigued" (legal beat, Summer 2007), Joshua Dunn and Martha Derthick describe court decisions in Texas, Massachusetts, and New York that suggest the courts may be growing weary of educational adequacy cases. They significantly understate their case. Eleven other adequacy cases have also been decided in the last two years. Only in New Hampshire have plaintiffs enjoyed any significant success.

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In the other ten cases, the results have been largely disappointing for plaintiffs. In Oklahoma, Indiana, Nebraska, Colorado, Oregon, and Kentucky, the courts ruled that the amount of educational funding is a political question for the legislature, not the courts, to decide. In Arizona, the courts dismissed the case, concluding that the state had no liability for achievement disparities it had not caused. A trial court upheld the adequacy of South Carolina's K-12 education system, approving only a claim related to pre-K programs. In the latest trial in Wyoming, the court rejected the most significant of plaintiffs' claims, granting them relatively minor relief. Most recently, an Alaska trial court ruled that plaintiffs had failed to prove inadequate school funding in that state, holding only that more state oversight over how some districts spent their money was needed. This was hardly the result plaintiff school districts could have wanted.

The track record of the last two years is a discouraging one for plaintiffs considering filing an adequacy lawsuit. Rather than the courts, it has been through the often maligned legislative process that advocates for increased funding for schools have had the most success. Most notably, legislatures in New York, North Dakota, and Wyoming significantly increased K-12 education appropriations in the last year, but only after plaintiffs' court claims for significantly increased funding had either ended or been rejected.

ALFRED A. LINDSETH

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Sutherland Asbill & Brennan