Schools sue Idaho Supreme Court

BOISE (AP) — A group of Idaho school districts, including Lake Pend Oreille School District, seeking money to repair what they say are unsafe school buildings, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Idaho Supreme Court to compel the justices to order a remedy phase for a case the school districts won two years ago.

The court in 2005 upheld a lower court ruling in favor of the school district's lawsuit, first filed in 1990, that funding for Idaho schools was unconstitutional.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court contends the Idaho justices have done nothing since to make sure the ruling is followed.

"We don't think it is right and proper that the Supreme Court rule in favor of us then ignore whether or not anything comes out of that decision," said Stan Kress, superintendent for the Cottonwood School District.

After its ruling in 2005, the court made suggestions to Idaho lawmakers on how to fix the problem, but did not remand the case to a lower court for a remedy.

The districts say Idaho lawmakers have ignored the ruling, and that school districts still don't have the money needed to repair old schools.

"I hope that my clients will get a remedy phase of their trial, to which they're entitled under both the federal and Idaho constitutions," said attorney Robert Huntley, a former Idaho Supreme Court justice who is representing Idaho Schools for Equal Educational Opportunity.

Patty Tobias, the state's administrative director of the courts, did not immediately return a call to The Associated Press on Thursday.

The original lawsuit filed by the school districts argued that the state was not fulfilling its responsibility under Idaho code to provide a "general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools."

In the 2005 ruling, the justices said Idaho's system was unconstitutional because poor school districts were unable to build safe schools for children.

School construction in Idaho is paid for mainly with property taxes, and residents must approve construction with a two-thirds supermajority to raise their own taxes.

The justices called on Idaho lawmakers to change that system, suggesting that the supermajority be lowered, that the state's general fund be used, or that corporate income tax be used.

The state last spring said that lawmakers had fixed the problem, but school districts argued they had made the problem worse.

The justices opted not to consider those arguments and declared the case over on Feb. 20.

Huntley's motion for clarification was denied, leading to the federal lawsuit.

"At some point, somebody's got to stand up to this," Huntley said.