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Schools File Adair Brief
from MIRS, 2-26-03
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Michigan's 464
plaintiff school districts in the Adair v. Michigan case filed
their brief in the Supreme Court this month in their effort to
receive full-funding for mandated state programs and services as
required by the Headlee Amendment.
With the plaintiffs filing their brief, the state has 35 days to
file a brief in support of its position, after which the court
will schedule oral arguments.
The 18-year case, sometimes referred to as “Durant IV,” deals
with the schools claiming that between 1979-1995 the state of
Michigan did not give schools money to pay for a variety of
administrative rule changes and the increased number of hours
that teachers were required to work.
The state, in essence, gave local school districts several
unfunded mandates, which are in violation of the Headlee
Amendment, they claimed. However a majority of the appeals
judges ruled that all but one of the plaintiff's claims could
have been raised in the Durant case, in which the state paid
hundreds of school districts money for unfunded mandates since
1979.
“We hold fast to our position that the state is absolutely and
unequivocally bound by the State Constitution to provide the
funding for schools to meet state mandated programs and
services,” said the school's attorney Dennis POLLARD.
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