Page:Lake View School District No. 25 v. Huckabee, 351 Ark. 31 (2002).pdf/5

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The supreme court held that a classification between poor and rich school districts existed and that the State, with its school-funding formula, had fostered this discrimination based on wealth.

1. SCHOOLS & SCHOOL DISTRICTS—CLASSIFICATION BETWEEN POOR & RICH SCHOOL DISTRICTS—STRICT SCRUTINY UNWARRANTED WHERE SCHOOL DISTRICTS WERE NEVER CONSIDERED SUSPECT CLASS.—Strict-scrutiny review was unwarranted where the supreme court had never considered school districts to be a suspect class for purposes of an equal-protection analysis.
2. SCHOOLS & SCHOOL DISTRICTS—CLASSIFICATION BETWEEN POOR & RICH SCHOOL DISTRICTS—STATE FAILED TO JUSTIFY UNDER RATIONAL-BASIS STANDARD.—The supreme court held that requiring the State to show a compelling interest to support the classification between poor and rich school districts was unnecessary because the State failed to justify the classification even under the more modest rational-basis standard.
3. EDUCATION—EQUAL EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY—GENERAL ASSEMBLY'S CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY TO PROVIDE.—Deference to local control has nothing to do with whether educational opportunities are equal across the state; it is the General Assembly's constitutional duty, not that of the school districts, to provide equal educational opportunity to every child in Arkansas.
4. EDUCATION—STATE'S RESPONSIBILITY—DEVELOP WHAT CONSTITUTES ADEQUATE EDUCATION IN ARKANSAS.—It is the State's responsibility, first and foremost, to develop forthwith what constitutes an adequate education in Arkansas; it is, next, the State's responsibility to assess, evaluate, and monitor, not only the lower elementary grades for English and math proficiency, but the entire spectrum of public education across the state to determine whether equal educational opportunity for an adequate education is being substantially afforded to the school children of the state; it is, finally, the State's responsibility to know how state revenues are being spent and whether true equality in opportunity is being achieved.
5. EDUCATION—EQUAL EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY—BASIC COMPONENTS.—Equality of educational opportunity must include as basic components substantially equal curricula, substantially equal facilities, and substantially equal equipment for obtaining an adequate education; the key to all this is to determine what comprises an adequate education in Arkansas; the State has failed in each of these responsibilities.
6. SCHOOLS & SCHOOL DISTRICTS—SCHOOL FUNDING—TRIAL COURT DID NOT ERR IN FINDING THAT SCHOOL-FUNDING SYS-