June 2, 2009
Indiana Supreme Court Votes to Avoid Education Finance Litigation Mess
Court Echoes Tax Foundation Legal Brief in Four-to-One Opinion
Washington, DC, June 2, 2009 - In a four-to-one decision in Bonner v. Indiana, echoing a Tax Foundation friend-of-the-court brief, the Indiana Supreme Court concluded this morning that setting precise educational goals is the responsibility of the legislature and the people at large, not the courts.
While Indiana's Constitution establishes a statewide school system and requires that it be "general and uniform," plaintiffs sought to turn this provision into a mechanism for judicial micromanagement of Indiana's education system.
"Although recognizing the Indiana Constitution directs the General Assembly to establish a general and uniform system of public schools," Justice Brent E. Dickson wrote in the Court's opinion, "we hold that it does not mandate any judicially enforceable standard of quality, and to the extent that an individual student has a right, entitlement, or privilege to pursue public education, this derives from the enactments of the General Assembly, not from the Indiana Constitution."
Joseph Henchman, Tax Foundation Tax Counsel and co-author of the Tax Foundation's friend-of-the-court brief in the case, notes that Bonner v. Daniels was the latest instance of a national campaign to involve the courts in determining appropriate levels of state spending on education. The unstated assumption used to justify these efforts is that increased education spending leads to increases in education quality, no matter what authority is used to raise spending.
"Although judicial mandates often lead to short-term funding increases, they often do not lead to improvements in student performance, prompting more lawsuits," Henchman argues. "Indiana has now been spared this endless cycle of resource-draining litigation."
The Tax Foundation's brief can be found at http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/23506.html.
A comprehensive Tax Foundation Background Paper on the topic, "Appropriation by Litigation: Estimating the Cost of Judicial Mandates," available at http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/22505.html, outlines the serious problems encountered by courts as they embark on micromanaging education policy and mandating funding levels. Since 1977, lawmakers have authorized an additional $34 billion in annual spending or taxes to comply with court mandates.
The Tax Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that has monitored fiscal policy at the federal, state and local levels since 1937.
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