Illinois schools ask court to overturn funding suit's dismissal.

CHICAGO -- An group of Illinois school districts yesterday asked the state appellate court to overturn a lower court's dismissal of a lawsuit that claims the state's school funding system in unconstitutional.

D. Kendall Griffith, an attorney for the Committee for Educational Rights, an association of 75 Illinois school districts, said that the disparities in per pupil spending across the state violate the Illinois Constitution, which requires the state to provide an adequate, equitable, and "efficient system of high-quality public education."

Griffith argued the case before the First District, Fourth Division of the Appellate Court of Illinois.

The suit alleges that because the current system of school funding is based largely on the property wealth of communities, disparities in local tax bases result in substantial inequity in the quality of education.

In Illinois, annual per pupil spending ranges from $2,700 to $12,000, according to the Committee for Educational Rights.

The committee's suit, which was filed in November 1990, was dismissed two years ago by a Cook County Circuit Court judge who said that the funding question belonged to the Illinois legislature, not the courts.

Rita Novak, an assistant state attorney general, said that the Circuit Court judge properly dismissed the suit. Illinois' Constitution does not place a limitation on how the legislature should fund education, Novak said.

"The plaintiffs are now asking the court to read that limitation into the Constitution," Novak said.

The appellate court will probably not issue a decision for at least a month, Griffith said.

Richard D. Laine, executive secretary of the Committee for Educational Rights and executive director of its umbrella organization, the Coalition for Educational Rights, said that since 1975 the state's share of school funding has dwindled to 33% from 48%.

The committee's appeal of the lower court's decision comes as candidates for governor debate educational funding. Gov. Jim Edgar, a Republican, and his opponent, state comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch, a Democrat, have both outlined plans to deal with the issue.

Under Edgar's plan, schools could receive an additional $1 billion of revenues through a state and local government matching fund program that would rely on earmarking for education all increases in riverboat gambling revenues.

Netsch's proposes to increase funding for schools by $1 billion a year by raising the state income tax to 4.25% from 3%. The plan would reduce property taxes by $1 billion and reduce income taxes for some residents.

Fred Hess, executive director of the Chicago Panel on Public School Policy and president of the Coalition for Educational Rights, said that Edgar's plan "falls far short" and would "continue the current inadequacy of school funding in the state."

Netsch's plan would raise annual per pupil funding to $3,400 -- $600 short of the amount listed as adequate by the Illinois State Board of Education, Hess said.

While Netsch's plan "goes a long way," it "probably is not radical enough" to totally solve the school funding crisis in the state, Hess said.

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