Cite as 351 Ark. 31 (2002)
Pursuant to Act 917 of 1995, and in order that an amount of funding for an education system based on need and not on the amount available but on the amount necessary to provide an adequate educational system, the court concludes an adequacy study is necessary and must be conducted forthwith.
Stated simply, the fact that the Department of Education has refused to prepare an adequacy study is extremely troublesome and frustrating to this court, as it must be to the General Assembly. Indeed, the General Assembly in two 1997 Acts partially addressed what an adequate education in Arkansas would entail:
(c) The General Assembly finds that a suitable and efficient system of public education should:
. . .
(4) Assure that:
(A) All students graduating from high school are able to demonstrate a defined minimum level of competence in:
(i) English communications, oral, reading, and writing;
(ii) Mathematical skills; and
(iii) Science and social studies disciplines[.]
Act 1307 of 1997, § 1, codified at Ark. Code Ann. § 6-20-302(c)(4)(A) (Repl. 1999).
. . .
(a) Arkansas public school students will achieve competency in the basic core of knowledge and skills.
(1) Students will meet required standards in academic areas of the curriculum that will serve as a basis for students to pursue immediate and lifelong educational and employment opportunities.
(2) Students will achieve competency in language arts (writing, spelling, speaking, listening, and reading), math (computation, measurement, probability and statistics, problem solving, basic algebra, data analysis, and geometry concepts), science (physical and life science knowledge, and scientific problem solv-
