Jackson Falconer
TALLAHASSEE – The issue of state funding over public schools reached the end of a four-week trial on Friday, as plaintiffs sought to argue that Tallahassee is not fulfilling the state constitution's requirement of adequately funding public education.
Brought to court by Citizens for Strong Schools, the trial pitted the Florida Department of Education and the State Legislature against the group, which is composed of education advocates and parents from the counties of Duval and Pasco. who filed the lawsuit in 2010. Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart and other witnesses were called to testify for the state, represented by attorney Rocco Testani.
Witnesses for the plaintiff included Richard Milner, director of the Center for Urban Education at the University of Pittsburgh. Milner told the Miami Herald at the outset of the trial:
"Schools in Florida are largely still not integrated, with rich white communities providing far better education than poor black schools. There are still major inequities in public education in Florida, and this lawsuit threatens to expose that."
"Public Education Of Children.–Declares the education of children to be a fundamental value of the people of Florida; establishes adequate provision for education as a paramount duty of the state; expands constitutional mandate requiring the state to make adequate provision for a uniform system of free public schools by also requiring the state to make adequate provision for an efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system."
The trial was overseen by Circuit Judge George Reynolds, who will take at least one month to give a ruling on the case.
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