The 580-student Center School District was the focus of opening day in the Lobato v. State school funding lawsuit, with Superintendent George Welsh giving more than three and a half hours of testimony about the struggles of his high-poverty district in the San Luis Valley.
Welsh’s testimony came after lawyers for the three parties in the case – two sets of plaintiffs and the state of Colorado – took a bit more than two hours to present their opening arguments, which highlighted points made in the case’s voluminous pretrial filings.
Two sets of plaintiffs including school districts and parents contend the state’s school finance system doesn’t meet constitutional requirements for quality of education and want Denver District Judge Sheila Rappaport to rule that’s the case and order the legislature come up with a new system.
“This is about systematic failure,” said Kenzo Kawanabe, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, calling the current system “constitutionally insufficient. … There is no rational relationship” between the current finance system and the state constitution’s requirement for a thorough and uniform system of schools.
He said recent education reforms, such as the Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids and the educator effectiveness law, “are not aspirational goals” as the state would argue but rather state requirements that must be funded.
Lawyer David Hinojosa, representing a separate group of parents from four low-income districts, argued that the current system denies appropriate education opportunities to low-income students and English language learners.
Referring to the main source of funds for school support, known as total program funding, he said, “There are so many hands in that cookie jar that there are no cookies left.”
In the state’s opening argument, Assistant Attorney General Nicholas Heinke maintained, “The state of Colorado makes a tremendous investment in public education, and that investment is yielding results.” The state’s finance system is constitutional, he said.
“This case is not about whether Colorado’s leaders care about education,” Heinke said. He noted that Colorado students’ scores on National Assessment of Education Progress rank higher among that 50 states that does Colorado school spending. “Isn’t that the better measure of how Colorado does?
“The elected representatives of the people of Colorado have acted rationally” in setting up the state’s school finance system, Heinke said. “The plaintiffs’ groups just don’t like the outcome of the process.”
Heinke also argued, “the growing consensus in education research is that increased funding alone does not improve student achievement.”
The opening speeches over, the plaintiffs moved right into testimony by Welsh, veteran superintendent of the Center district.
Plaintiffs’ lawyer Kathleen Gebhardt methodically walked Welsh through a detailed list of questions about the district’s demographics, achievement levels, ethnic gaps, budget, facilities problems, special education services, salaries, staffing gaps and more.
At one point Welsh narrated a video that showed closed businesses in the town, kids sitting in jackets because of building heat problems, obsolete textbooks and other images meant to convey the message of district problems.
Welsh repeatedly answered questions with comments like “We don’t have the funds to do so” and “We don’t have the money.”
If there are further state budget cuts next year, Welsh said, “There’s no place left to cut except teachers.”
The plaintiffs moved deeper into detail with the testimony of John Hefty, a former superintendent and former executive director of the Colorado Association of School Executives.
Prompted by plaintiffs’ lawyer Alexander Halpern, Hefty launched into a detailed explanation of the variations among school districts, how school boards operate and how the state’s complicated funding system divvies up the money.
Highlights of the day
TONE: The day turned into a crash course for Rappaport on the nitty-gritty details of the K-12 system, especially when Hefty’s testimony got rolling.
QUOTE: Talking about dealing with the Department of Education, Welsh said, “I’d challenge anybody to try to find something on the CDE website. It’s pretty tough.”
MANEUVERING: On cross-examination, Carey Taylor Markel, senior assistant attorney general, called Welsh’s tale of Center’s woes into question. She cited a 2007 letter Welsh sent to district parents, citing the good education his own children had received.
“Is that a statement you stand by today?” she asked.
“You’ve got to put a positive spin on things to make your community feel comfortable,” Welsh said, answering “no” when asked again if he stood by the 2007 praise of the district’s quality.
DOCUMENTS: Get a sense of each side’s case in their trial briefs: Plaintiffs, plaintiff-intervenors, defendants.
Learn more about the Center district with this state report on its performance and the district plan for improvement.
COLOR: Plaintiffs’ children fought off boredom with doodling, books and snoozing on the floor underneath a courtroom bench. A couple of grownups elsewhere in the audience nodded off. Rappaport was focused on the case, alternately viewing documents projected on a large screen to her left, looking intently at lawyers and witnesses, and looking down at her notes.
SEEN: In the courtroom for opening day were Beverly Ingle, president of the Colorado Education Association; Carolyn Kampman, K-12 analyst for the Joint Budget Committee; Lisa Weil, policy director of Great Education Colorado; state Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, and Bruce Caughey, executive director of the Colorado Association of School Executives.
UPCOMING: Hefty continues his seminar on school finance starting at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, to be followed by plaintiffs’ witnesses Scott Murphy, Littleton superintendent; Glenn Gustafson, Colorado Springs District 11 CFO; and former Cherry Creek Superintendent Monte Moses.