Rural Matters

South Dakota Coalition of Schools, an umbrella organization of 59 mostly rural schools, along with 53 individual student and taxpayer plaintiffs, has filed a lawsuit against the State Department of Education, Board of Education, Governor Mike Rounds, Secretary of Education Rick Melmer, and State Treasurer Vernon Larson. The suit alleges that inadequate funding by the state is causing a constitutional violation of the state’s education clause, and that there is no relationship between the funds that are provided and the actual costs of providing an adequate relationship for these students. The complaint cites high numbers of students failing standardized tests and high dropout rates as evidence that the current finance system is “broken.” A recently-completed adequacy study commissioned by over 130 districts in the state showed a $133 million funding shortfall, and the study was also extensively cited in the complaint, and filed with the court as an exhibit. Interestingly, the same firm who completed the districts’ adequacy study is currently completing an efficiency study for the state legislature, and this limited undertaking was called “investigating how to most efficiently rearrange the deck chairs on a sinking ship” by the plaintiffs.