DENVER A landmark school finance trial ended Friday, leaving District Judge Sheila Rappaport to make a decision that will affect every Colorado student, teacher and taxpayer.
The five-week affair put on trial the states whole educational system, with plaintiffs claiming the Legislature sets high standards but doesnt provide enough money to help students achieve the goals.
The plaintiffs, who include the Montezuma-Cortez school district, want Rappaport to declare the school funding system unconstitutional. If she does, the Legislature would have to design a new one.
Plaintiffs presented evidence that they say shows schools need $1.3 billion to $3.5 billion more a year.
Lawyers for the state urged Rappaport to reject the plaintiffs claims.
They havent got as much as they want from the Legislature and the voters, so theyve come to your courtroom, said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Fero, who gave the states closing argument.
Rappaport did not say when she would rule, but she gave lawyers until mid-October to submit a final written argument.
Plaintiffs lawyer Kenzo Kawanabe pointed to antiquated books and supplies like computers that still use 5-inch floppy disks in use in classrooms around the state.
In schools across Colorado, the Soviet Union still exists on globes and in books. President Clinton is still our president, and the Twin Towers still stand, Kawanabe said.
He got the Twin Towers story from Cortez Middle School teacher Justine Bayles, who testified that kids at her school had drawn in their decade-old history books to show airplanes smashing into the World Trade Center.
Bayles and fellow Cortez teacher Matt Keefauver provided some of the most emotional testimony of the trial, with both holding back tears when they talked about students who they felt were failed by the system.
Plaintiffs also called national experts, superintendents and former Democratic lawmakers to argue that schools are inadequately funded.
The state, in its role as defendant, took testimony from Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia, Colorado Department of Education officials and current and former Republican lawmakers.
The states star expert witness, Stanford Professor Eric Hanushek, testified that his research shows little relation between funding levels and student success, and not even smaller class sizes matter to most kids.
But on cross examination, Kawanabe got the lieutenant governor to contradict Hanusheks testimony somewhat.
I do think, as a general rule, small class sizes are best, Garcia said in testimony last month.
The case hinges on the state constitutions guarantee of a thorough and uniform education to all Colorado children.
The states lawyers argued that Rappaport cant rule the system is unconstitutional because no one can agree on what the constitution means.
We are no closer to an interpretation of thorough and uniform than we were five weeks ago when the trial began, Fero said.
With 80 witnesses and more than 10,000 exhibits of evidence, the case raked through the performance of Colorados schools and the Legislatures efforts to reform and fund them.
Plaintiffs confronted the defense witnesses with reports of low test scores and high dropout rates across the state, especially among poor and minority students.
But Fero said Coloradans cant expect a perfect system with exactly equal opportunities for every child.
Where does it end? A student-teacher ratio of one to one or even several teachers for each child? Fero said. With perfection as a benchmark, a thorough and uniform system will never be met.
Another lawyer for some of the plaintiffs, David Hinojosa, said no one is asking for a perfect system.
Were asking for the resources to help our children meet the very standards (legislators) have put in place, Hinojosa said.
Reach Joe Hanel at [email protected].
