Montana Quality Education Coalition Files Suit in Lewis and Clark County to Pursue Court Enforcement of Inflation Guarantee in Law – Intends to Ensure Funding to Support Public Education Throughout Montana

The Montana Quality Education Coalition (MQEC) filed suit in District Court in Lewis and Clark County on Friday, November 18 to pursue court enforcement of the guarantee of inflation for state funding of Montana’s public schools. The action is designed to help clear up a contradiction between the level of funding authorized by the Montana Legislature through appropriation, which was sufficient to provide an inflationary increase to schools, and contrary language in a separate bill that prevents distribution of the authorized funding.

Mark Lambrecht, MQEC’s Executive Director, said “Legal action became necessary at the conclusion of the 2011 Montana Legislative Session when schools failed to receive inflationary funding as required by Montana law.” He added, “Both the Legislature and Governor Schweitzer intended to provide inflationary funding for schools, but a contingency clause included in the school funding bill at the end of the Session connected it to a revenue allocation bill that was vetoed. This situation significantly reduced the amount of funding available to Montana’s public schools.”

Montana law requires the State to provide a funding system that “is self-executing and includes a mechanism for annual inflationary adjustments.” MQEC is confident the courts will agree that the funding provided to Montana’s K-12 public schools as a result of the 2011 Montana Legislative Session represents a clear violation of Montana law.

MQEC recently commissioned a survey of 500 Montana voters to determine their views about public school funding in Montana and was pleased to learn that a significant majority of respondents ranked K-12 public school funding as the State’s number one spending priority and a similar majority support court action to guarantee inflationary funding for schools.

Highlights of the MQEC survey include the following:

• Over 72 percent of the respondents support court action to require the Montana Legislature to provide inflation funding as calculated by the State of Montana.

• Nearly 85 percent of the respondents were concerned that K-12 public education funding passed by the 2011 Montana Legislative Session did not match inflation.

• Over half of the respondents supporting court action indicated they were more supportive knowing that the Legislature appropriated sufficient funds to fund inflation, but the statutory language to distribute the funds was lost because of a contingency clause connecting the school funding bill to an unrelated bill that was vetoed.

• Nearly 65 percent of the respondents who support court action were even more supportive knowing that actual state revenues are coming in almost $80 million higher than was estimated by the Legislature during the 2011 Session.

• Nearly 65 percent of the respondents supportive of court action indicated they were more supportive knowing that schools will have to cut programs and services (including laying off teachers) if approximately $8 million in inflationary funding is not restored.

• Nearly 54 percent of the respondents supporting court action were more supportive knowing that failure to provide sufficient increases in state funding for K-12 public schools results in local tax increases.

• Over 68 percent of the respondents believe K-12 public education should be the state government’s highest spending priority. 

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