Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — A federal appeals panel today upheld the consolidation of the Lake View School District in eastern Arkansas.
The decision by a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis affirmed a 2008 ruling by U.S. District Judge Bill Wilson Jr. dismissing a lawsuit by patrons of the now-defunct Lake View district.
The district was dissolved and consolidated with the Barton-Lexa School District in 2004, a victim of the Legislature’s response to a judge’s ruling in a school funding lawsuit the tiny Lake View district initiated in 1992 challenging the state’s method of funding public schools.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge declared the state’s school funding system unconstitutional in 2002. The Legislature responded with sweeping academic and financial changes, along with forced consolidation of school districts with enrollments of fewer than 350 students.
Lake View was among the first 57 districts affected by the consolidation law.
A group calling itself Friends of Lake View School District filed a federal lawsuit in response to the consolidation order, arguing the district was unconstitutionally targeted because it successfully challenged Arkansas’ school funding formula.
The lawsuit asked that two laws passed during a 2003 special legislative session on education be overturned. Act 59 changed the school funding formula and Act 60 forced consolidation of the state’s smallest school districts.
Wilson dismissed the case.
On appeal to the 8th Circuit, Friends of Lake View argued that black majority districts were disproportionately affected by forced school consolidation and that Act 60 was unconstitutional.
The three-judge panel said in today’s decision that Wilson was correct to dismiss the lawsuit.
“Act 60 survives rational basis review because the state of Arkansas has legitimate governmental interest in consolidating school districts to achieve economies of scale and other efficiencies, and the classification drawn between school districts based on their average daily membership is rationally related to advancing that interest,” the court said.
