By Harold Reutter
harold.reutter@theindependent.com

Schools in the trust include Omaha, Grand Island, South Sioux City and Lexington.

Those four school districts claimed the state's system resulted in funding discrimination against impoverished students, English language learner students and ethnic minority students.

Superintendent Steve Joel said Thursday that the school districts had always said that it costs more to educate "high-needs" students than students who come to school with fewer needs.

During a hastily called press conference in his office, Joel thanked Sen. Ron Raikes, chairman of the Education Committee, for guiding the bill through the Legislature and Gov. Dave Heineman for so quickly signing it.

The Nebraska Schools Trust brought its lawsuit against the state in 2003.

Despite the filing of the lawsuit, Joel said, school officials in the trust always wanted to have a conversation with the governor and lawmakers about what it costs to educate students with the highest needs.

The lawsuit was scheduled to be heard in September.

Last August, officials of The Nebraska School Trust offered a stay in the lawsuit. Officials were pleased with the direction that lawmakers had taken in creating a learning community that included Omaha and many of its neighboring school districts.

The proposed stay would have slowed down the lawsuit's progress in court, with school officials hoping that they and state officials could hammer out a deal during the 2008 legislative session.

Heineman and Attorney General Jon Bruning countered with a proposal for the Nebraska Schools Trust to dismiss the lawsuit.

Heineman's and Bruning's idea was turned down by trust officials.

On Thursday, Joel said that LB988 provided what the schools that made up the trust felt they needed, so there was no need to continue the lawsuit.

Grand Island is scheduled to receive a $4.3 million increase in state aid, even though lawmakers cut aid for school districts statewide by about $77 million.

That amount was cut in two separate stages. The first was a cut of $66 million during first-round approval. Despite that big cut, Grand Island's state aid actually rose after the first-round action.

Following the second round, another $11 million was cut. That time, Grand Island lost $900,000 from the approximately $5.2 million that had been "certified" to all local schools. Certified aid is supposed to be locked in for local school districts on Feb. 1 so they can begin planning for the next budget year.

But with state tax receipts predicted to fall this year, nothing could be certified as lawmakers sought ways to tighten the budget belt.

Joel said LB988 perhaps was not everything trust schools wanted, but the bill went far enough that there was no need to continue the lawsuit.

He said the additional $4.3 million in state aid means Grand Island should be able to meet the needs of all its students, both those for whom academics comes fairly easily and those who have higher needs.

For example, the increase in state aid will allow Grand Island to comply with the mandate for K-3 class sizes of fewer than 20 students.

Joel said Grand Island has never been able to hire enough English language learner teachers to have the proper student-teacher ratio. The district still might not have the exact student-teacher ratio it wants, but Joel is hoping that it will be able to close the gap.

He said the aid also should allow the district to be able to continue summer school programs and after-school programs. He noted the district always had to be cautious about such programs because of the uncertainty of state funding.

Joel expressed the hope that Grand Island even will be able to have a limited school transportation system for students who lack transportation to get to more distant schools.

"This is a good, good day for Grand Island," Joel said.

Heineman was pleased with the results as well.

"The dismissal of this lawsuit is good news," Heineman said. "This means that instead of funding lawyers and lobbyists, the focus of the Omaha Public Schools can return to the education of our kids, closing the academic achievement gap and providing higher teacher salaries."

Bruning had almost the same reaction, saying, "Dismissal of the lawsuit is a big win for Nebraska's taxpayers. Finally, the money used for litigation and lawyers will go back to educating our children."

School board Vice President Roger Harms said that one of the biggest changes in the state aid formula was that annual increases are pegged to current needs, rather than to historical per-pupil spending patterns.

Harms said tying a state aid increase to historical spending hurt Grand Island, which for years has had one of the lowest per-pupil spending rates for schools of its size in Nebraska.

PoreB 4/2/08