The Adequacy Lawsuit is Dead--Long Live the Adequacy Lawsuit!

One of the things that Education Week is best as is the ongoing dialogue; there was a neat two-month span earlier this year when they went to town on Understanding by Design, and now there's a healthy exchange underway regarding filing suit as a means to get more money for schools.

The genesis was a well-researched opinion piece in the September 12th issue from Alfred Lindseth, who often represents the states as they defend themselves. He laid out a 5-part test for why the lawsuits have been failing (14 of the last 15, by his scoring) and gave a good insight into what "the other side" thinks.

This, in turn, sparked some great letters to Education Week from some of those most familiar with the adequacy wars, including Michael Rebell of Columbia University and Kathryn Firestone, executive director of the Oregon School Funding Defense Foundation.

Why this matters to Washington State is because of our own adequacy lawsuit currently winding its way through the system. The bludgeon that we have that most other states don't is the language from the state constitution regarding education being the paramount duty of the state. We could be the exception that breaks the trend Lindseth describes.