The plan to bypass voters and legislators and increase school spending by $1 billion has failed in Missouri.
August 31, 2007 - Judge Richard Callahan rejected claims that the state is failing to meet constitutional requirements to provide an adequate education for all public school students. He also rejected the assertion that spending on each pupil ought to be equal between wealthy and poor districts.
Callahan's ruling said the state constitution was not intended to guarantee "absolute equity, equality or adequacy in dollars spent or facilities from district to district."
Court decision PDF
The Springfield school district dropped out of another planned lawsuit.
If the court ruled that funding was not adequate, local taxpayers might not like the consequences: the possibility of a mandatory tax increase.TT - Which is exactly what the ""plaintiff-intervenors" lawsuits are about.
"I didn't want it to come across we needed to sue the state so we can get taxpayers to pay more money," said [Springfield Superintendent] NormRidder.
