Laf. schools to sue state; claims district shorted $70M

The Lafourche Parish School Board has voted to join a lawsuit against the state, which claims that Louisiana has shortchanged its public schools by almost $70 million per year for the past two years.

The initial suit was brought by the St. John the Baptist Parish School District against the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Department of Education.

St. John officials claim a 2013 Louisiana Supreme Court ruling changed the formula that determines how much money the state gives to schools, and that the payouts were not tweaked to reflect the change.

BESE officials say that if money is owed to school districts they are not to blame; the program resulting in those payouts, they maintain, is approved by the Legislature and signed into law by the governor.

Each year school districts get money based on their student counts from a protocol called the “Minimum Foundation Program.”

BESE hands the MFP formula each year to the Louisiana State Legislature, which can either approve it, or give it back to BESE with suggestions for changes. If approved, it must be signed into law by the governor before payouts can be made.

Once approved, the Legislature gives the money to BESE, which then turns it over to the Louisiana Department of Education to distribute.

According to the Louisiana Constitution, if the Legislature were not to approve an MFP formula, then the last approved formula would be adopted for that year.

In 2013, several public school districts sued Louisiana over Gov. Bobby Jindal’s plan to offer private school vouchers to parents with children at failing public schools, using money from the MFP.

But the state Supreme Court, in a ruling that MFP dollars couldn’t be used for private school tuition, nullified the entire 2012-13 MFP formula.

“It created a situation where there were some questions about which MFP formula is a valid formula in place. And the general consensus is that it went back to a formula that included a 2.75 percent increase,” said Scott Richard, executive director of the Louisiana School Boards Association.

That is basically what the St. John the Baptist Parish School Board and now other school boards are seeking through the courts, clarity for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years.

The last approved MFP before the 2013 court decision – for the 2011-12 school year – was payment of a 2.75 percent “growth factor” to account for inflation and the rising costs of education. Had that same formula been used in later school years, education officials say, the state should have paid out more.

Despite the ruling, Louisiana school districts have not received that growth factor payment.

The 2011-12 MFP appropriation from the Legislature was $3.4 billion, paid to 69 school districts across the state.

“While it is the Legislature that appropriates funds, not the Department of Education, we will provide the court testimony and information to assist in resolving this issue,” said Louisiana Department of Education spokesman Ken Pastorek.

Many more school districts may join as plaintiffs in the suit, but receiving the money should they win poses another obstacle.

The Lafourche Parish schools could get “somewhere around five or six million dollars” if a judge rules in favor of the school districts, said Don Gaudet, fiscal officer for the Lafourche Parish School Board.

But even if the school districts do win the case, the state legislature must still appropriate money to pay the growth factor, Richard said.