State Notified Of Lawsuit Over School Funding

The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia (ACLU-WV) notified state officials Monday that they intend to file suit on behalf of a class of Lincoln County students. State law requires a government agency be notified at least 30 days prior to action against a governmental agency. 

Officials notified include Speaker of the House of Delegates Roger Hanshaw, President of the Senate Randy Smith, Auditor Mark Hunt, Tax Commissioner Matthew Irby, Treasurer Larry Pack, the West Virginia Department of Education, the West Virginia Board of Education, and the School Building Authority, along with Lincoln County officials named as necessary parties. 

The ACLU-WV alleges the state’s persistent underfunding of public schools violates the “thorough and efficient” education guarantee as well as the equal protection provisions of the West Virginia Constitution.  

Nearly 50 years ago, another series of lawsuits from Lincoln County – Pauley v Kelley and Pauley v Bailey – led to the state school system being deemed unconstitutionally inadequate by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.   

“In West Virginia, each and every child is guaranteed the right to a thorough and efficient education; a promise enshrined in our constitution since the state’s founding in 1863,” Aubrey Sparks, legal director of the ACLU-WV said in a press release.  

“West Virginia made this promise concrete in 1982, when a court defined, in greater detail than any court in the country before or since, what a thorough and efficient education requires, and what falls short. Today, despite the passage of nearly fifty years since this right was first made concrete in the historic Recht decision, Lincoln County students are receiving a lower quality education than what their parents, and their grandparents, received before them,” Sparks said. “The West Virginia Constitution does not and should not allow this profoundly important constitutional right to wither and die on the vine as the result of ongoing financial neglect by the Defendants,” 

In a press release, the ACLU-WV said the gap in per pupil spending between wealthy and poor counties is now more than three times larger than when that same disparity was declared unconstitutional. The disparity between counties was central to the Pauley cases, namely that that the state funding formula leaves individual counties to bridge the gap, “and their financial ability to do so is directly related to county property values.” 

The notice states “the current state funding formula results in basic state aid that is wholly insufficient to provide an adequate education,” and singled out “minimum funding” for special education at a lower rate than what was previously deemed unconstitutional. The notice also highlights a staffing formula that “often results in fewer formula-paid staff per 1,000 students than was declared insufficient in 1982,” and noted that “pupil-teacher” ratios vary significantly between counties and are largely driven by wealth disparities.” 

In a statement to MetroNews’ TJ Meadows, West Virginia Board of Education President Paul Hardesty said he was not surprised by the notice. 

“This is my fourth term as President of the West Virginia Board of Education. I have repeatedly asked for help with the current outdated school aid funding formula. To date, I have received none,” Hardesty said. “It was litigation that came from Lincoln County 44 years ago that forced the courts to weigh in on the school aid formula. Now, that outdated, antiquated funding formula will be revisited once again as a result of this pending litigation from Lincoln County. How ironic.” 

Read the full notice here: