Lawmakers meet on desegregation funds

By The Associated Press

Arkansas lawmakers are venting frustration with the pace of trying to end the roughly $60 million the state pays each year in desegregation funding to three school districts.

Members of a legislative task force on Tuesday met with attorneys for the state and the Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pulaski County school districts to talk about the long-running desegregation case. The meeting was the panel's first since a federal appeals court said earlier this year that Little Rock's schools are successfully desegregated.

The state has paid the districts more than $845 million through a 1989 settlement in the case. Both North Little Rock and Pulaski County are seeking to be declared unitary, or substantially desegregated, by a federal judge.

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TheBatt says...

This is exactly what happens when you throw money at a problem, particularly taxpayer money - the entity or individual receiving the funds becomes dependent on those funds.

Kind of interesting when compared to the figures around the state on "per-pupil" funding. Seems that I remember that one of the pieces of the Arkansas Supreme Court ruling in the Lakeview case was that such funding was not equitable or adequate.

July 14, 2009 at 8:57 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

rekim55_sbcglobal-net says...

Once the funding stream ends, then those who have "profited" from the case will have to find another "gravy train" to ride.

July 15, 2009 at 9:58 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

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