School funding: Get the job done

So now it's a toss-up over when to hold a special legislative session in Montana. The governor is backing plans for a two-day December jam session to deliver a constitutional funding formula for schools, while House Republicans have proposed a January session to provide "bridge funding" for schools until the complex matter of school funding can be addressed in its entirely during the 2007 session.

We think the choice is pretty simple: Montanans don't want a school funding system that is held together with duct tape and baling wire, ready to fall apart again at the slightest legal prodding in a few years.

If the governor insists on a two-day session, we think it's a session set up for failure, with no one to blame but legislators. This is where Montanans should carefully examine how much leadership Schweitzer has exerted in a debate that stretches back to the 2004 elections.

Democrats, including Schweitzer, campaigned with a promise of making Montana's school funding compliant with a Supreme Court ruling requiring a funding mechanism to provide a "basic system of quality education" statewide.

During the last session, it was repeatedly acknowledged that the current formula for funding schools was unconstitutional. But after fruitless debating and pondering, the Legislature took the quick-fix approach of providing $80 million more for schools for the biennium, with the idea that a special committee, the Quality Schools Interim Committee, would come up with a long-term solution this year. The education lobby wasn't happy.

"You'll end up throwing money into a funding formula that has proven itself to be unconstitutional," said MEA-MFT President Eric Feaver, referring to the $80 million fix.

After months of consideration, the Quality Schools Interim Committee finally produced a 186-page draft plan for school funding. We won't pretend to be experts on the intricacies contained in that plan, but we do know that most of the education community was unhappy with it. The coalition of schools that sued the state to provide a "quality education" is adamantly opposed to it.

And that prompted the GOP to pronounce it "dead on arrival" less than two weeks ago.

Schweitzer hasn't given up on the committee's work, however. He's holding out hope that an acceptably revised plan can be developed before a Dec. 5 committee meeting, clearing the way for a special session to begin Dec. 13.

The House GOP leadership believes that is wishful thinking, and that the state has been forced once again into a situation of providing a temporary funding boost for schools, until lasting funding reform can be developed in the 2007 legislative session. They also say a January session can make use of an expected $300 million surplus to provide property tax relief and funding for water rights adjudication, instead of the current plan to charge a water usage fee for that process. The state's troubled pension funds would likely be on the agenda as well.

So, the state is basically, shamefully, back to where it started more than a year ago, despite a Supreme Court order to have it all fixed by Oct. 1.

The problems remain the same: a fundamentally flawed funding system for schools, an education lobby that is pressing for vastly increased funding, and the political reality that Montana voters are not willing to offer up a blank check for "quality" education, especially when there are no assurances that educational quality will actually improve.

This should prove, once and for all, there is no such thing as a quick fix to a complicated problem. It's time for some "quality" leadership in Montana instead of the usual political posturing. Don't settle for enough to get re-elected; get the job done.