LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit brought by a rural Northwest Arkansas school district trying to prevent further consolidation.
McDaniel’s 46-page response, filed Tuesday, addressed issues raised in the lawsuit filed Dec. 3 in Pulaski County Circuit Court by the Deer-Mount Judea School District. Transportation is central to the argument presented by the district, which has to bus children over some of the state’s roughest terrain.
McDaniel argues that the district hasn’t brought forth any complaint that would warrant overriding the state’s sovereign and legislative immunity. He also details his position that the state’s educational funding plan is constitutional and that issues raised by Deer-Mount Judea were previously addressed in a school-funding case decided by the Arkansas Supreme Court.
Because Deer-Mount Judea was a member of the class of plaintiffs in the case brought by the now-defunct Lake View School District, the same case can’t be relitigated, McDaniel wrote.
McDaniel argued several points but focused mainly on why the funding system is constitutional.
“Deer/Mt. Judea’s complaint can essentially be summarized as a demand to retain their small population school district while having the State run the district for them; this the Constitution does not require,” McDaniel wrote.
The Deer-Mount Judea suit was filed by former state Sen. Bill Lewellen, D-Marianna, one of the lawyers for the former Lake View district.
Lewellen said he had not received his copy of the brief as of Wednesday, but would be filing a response this week.
The suit names the governor and numerous state education officials as defendants.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 01/22/2011