A lawsuit filed by Missouri school districts seeking equity in the foundation formula could backfire.
An article in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch indicates that many of the smaller school districts in the lawsuit could be putting themselves out of business if they succeed in reforming the formula, through which Missouri public schools are funded.
The article said 43 percent of Missouri's school districts have 500 students or less and many of those may be forced to shut down or consolidate.
That would not be good news, Tom Quinn with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, told the Post-Dispatch. "For many communities, that's all they've got. If they lose their schools, they lose their community and their sense of identity. That revolves around the school."
Missouri legislators working on fixing the formula have suggested rewarding districts that consolidate, according to the article. Illinois is already doing that.
If the schools that are suing the state prevail, Craig Wood, a professor of education finance at the University of Florida told the Post-Dispatch, "that will move the consolidation issue to the front burner."
Marty Strange, policy director for the Rural School and Community Trust, a nonprofit group agreed. "If rural people are going to file suit and seek relief in court, they better be prepared to win in the legislature, otherwise their reward will be the death penalty."
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The threat of judicial intervention has forced the General Assembly to address the inequities of the Foundation Formula, but the Republican leadership in the Senate appear to resent that and want to make sure that it never happens again.
On Thursday, senate leaders, including Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, announced their support for a constitutional amendment that would keep the courts out of educational funding issues. Governor Matt Blunt also said he supported the proposal. He was quoted in an Associated Press article as saying, "I don't think courts have a right to impose a tax increase on the people of this state."
No one wants to see the courts do that, but the problem has not been caused by the courts but by legislators who will not do what it takes to reform a badly-flawed system.
Legislators representing wealthier school districts won't support any kind of reform that would reduce some of the funding those districts receive. Legislators representing smaller, poorer school districts, don't force those districts to examine ideas such as consolidation and shared services that would improve their situations.
When neither side budges, taxpayers end up footing the bill for dramatic increases in overall funding, which add to the money the poorer districts have, but continue to leave the entire formula lopsided. Some poorer (and poorly performing) school districts are spared the ax and continue to be non-performing drains on taxpayer money.
Nodler was joined by Senate Majority Leader Charlie Shields in endorsing the proposal. Oddly enough, a 2004 report issued by a committee headed by Shields indicates that legislators hardly ever address problems with the education funding formula until a lawsuit or the threat of a lawsuit exists.
The AP article indicates the senators were careful to stress that the proposed constitutional amendment only seeks to prevent schools from suing the state, not individuals, but that is not the way the wording of the proposed amendment reads. It says, "The power to determine public school funding shall not fall within the province of the judiciary." No mention is made of an exception for individual lawsuits.
The proposed amendment is another in an increasing series of dangerous steps being taken by the Republican-led legislature. Many of their so-called reforms are designed to protect and enrich their friends in the business, medical, and insurance fields. This one is far more dangerous. It threatens to eliminate the constitutional check on their growing power. Having a judiciary that reviews the constitutionality of laws and offers recourse to Missourians who are not satisfied with legislative actions, is an important and necessary part of our system.
It is a shame that our elected officials have little so understanding of our political system and why it works.
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A former Newton County Jail prisoner who is representing himself in a lawsuit against former Sheriff Ron Doerge appears to have run into some problems.
In a document filed Friday in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Donald R. Allen says he cannot properly respond to the sheriff's motion for summary judgment "because his files is not up here."
In the summary judgment motion, Doerge's attorneys asked for Allen to pay for their costs and expenses. Allen says he can't do that because when he is out of prison "he is on disability Social Security benefits."
The case is scheduled to come to trial this summer. Allen says he did not receive proper medical care while he was in the Newton County Jail.
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The U. S. Attorney's office on Friday entered more letters purportedly written by Randy Hance in order to keep him in jail without bond.
Hance, a former McDonald County deputy and Seneca police officer, is in jail without bond awaiting an April 25 trial on federal weapons charges.
The latest batch of letters, following letters that were filed with U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri earlier this week, were sent to Hance's former girlfriend, who lives in Kansas.
The letters are filled with hate and one obscenity after another, which will not be printed on this site. One of the milder comments used by Hance was "I hope death comes for you soon. All you do is breath (sic) good air and take up space. The only sex you can get comes in a box and says batteries not included."
The earlier batch of letters, written about earlier this week in The Turner Report, convinced authorities that Hance planned to murder his former wife, Connie Hance, then kill himself.
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Jury selection began Friday for a billion dollar lawsuit brought by Revlon Chairman Ronald Perelman against the Morgan Stanley investment banking firm.
Perelman claims Morgan Stanley knew that the Sunbeam company was in bad financial shape in 1998 when he sold Sunbeam his 82 percent stake in the Coleman company for $1.5 billion in Sunbeam stock.
A few months after the deal, according to the Wall Street Journal, Sunbeam disclosed that it had the serious financial problems that eventually led to its bankruptcy.
As the Journal puts it, "The lawsuit cuts to the heart of an issue on Wall Street. What is the responsibility of a stock underwriter or banker in terms of identifying problems at a company it counts as a client, and to whom is the underwriter responsible?"
Perelman is seeking $2.7 billion in damages.
The Sunbeam Company, now owned by Jarden Corporation, has a plant in Neosho.
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Joplin television viewers are not as upset with Nexstar Broadcasting about the removal of KODE and KSNF from Cable One as viewers in other areas are about the removal of other Nexstar stations.
At least that's what Nexstar CEO Perry Sook and COO Duane Lammers told reporter John Boyd of the San Angelo, Texas, Standard Times.
Sook told Boyd that editorials in the San Angelo newspaper had made the feeling stronger against Nexstar in that market than in Joplin, Abilene, Texas, or Bossier City, La.
Lammers said it was hard to tell what public sentiment was. "No one's going to call us up and tell us, 'Gosh, we think you're right."
He failed to mention if anyone was calling him and saying, "Gosh, we think you're wrong."