The Consortium is composed of 50 Georgia school systems, including Madison County’s, which have long contended that the state government is failing to provide adequate funding for education.
According to a press release from the Consortium, leaders withdrew the suit after learning that the case is being transferred from Judge Elizabeth E. Long, who has presided over the case for three years, to Judge Craig L. Schwall just seven weeks before the trial begins.
“Coming on the eve of the long-awaited trial, the transfer of our case to a new judge created serious problems,” said Joseph G. Martin Jr., Executive Director of the Consortium. “We lost the benefit of the substantial knowledge that has been acquired by the previous judge and faced the prospect of further delays in the case. We were also concerned that the critical issues in the case would not receive a fair hearing under the new judge.”
Judge Schwall, who was appointed to the Fulton County Superior Court by Gov. Sonny Perdue in 2005, was previously the chairman of the Fulton County Republican Party.
Perdue hailed the withdrawal of the case as a “victory for Georgia citizens who have been paying both sides of this lawsuit.”
“Georgia taxpayers have paid well over $2 million in both bringing and defending this suit,” said Perdue. “When the Consortium filed the lawsuit, they ignored the fact that we are spending more on education than ever before in the state’s history. State spending on K-12 education makes up nearly half of the state’s budget. Through targeted and innovative approaches, we have raised the graduation rate from 63 percent in 2003 to over 74 percent. And millions of dollars later, the Consortium failed to demonstrate the central premise of its flawed argument: that increased funds always increase student achievement.”
Perdue also said the Consortium showed disrespect to Judge Schwall.
“Before Judge Schwall could even make a ruling, the Consortium baselessly accused him of not being impartial, retreated and expressed plans to file again in a transparent attempt at forum shopping that undermines the most basic principles of this country’s legal system and the rule of law,” said Perdue. “It is my hope that school districts will permanently end this litigious and wholly unproductive burden on Georgia’s taxpayers.”
Martin said recent cuts in state funds have been “especially harmful to the local school systems that were already in financial difficulty.”
“The problems in financing of Georgia’s schools have become so widespread that we will seek the support of all school systems in Georgia,” said Martin. “This interruption gives us the opportunity to refocus the issues in the case and file a new lawsuit.”
