By Mark Millican

markmillican@daltoncitizen.com

CHATSWORTH — The Murray County Board of Education is betting that inclusion in the Consortium for Adequate School Funding will pay off in the long run. The system in 2004 joined a group of 50 school systems in Georgia that have sued the state for what they say is inadequate funding.

The current bill from the consortium is $23,634, which board members agreed to pay half of during their meeting Monday night. In January, when they pay the second half, the system will have spent $140,529.

The consortium (www.casfg.org/litigation/) will take its case to Polk County Superior Court on Oct. 21. Almost one-third of Georgia’s schools are represented in the lawsuit.

“The suit was filed because Georgia has obligation under the state constitution to provide adequate school funding,” said Joe Martin, executive director of the nonprofit consortium, Monday night. “The state has a primary obligation to support schools, but the state has been abdicating that responsibility to the local level. Some systems can take up the slack, but others can’t.”

Martin said 500,000 pages of documents have been filed in the case, which will be a bench trial with no jury. He told the board he expects a decision early in 2009.

“We are so sure of a favorable decision in the first part of next year that we’ll be able to tell legislators (as the General Assembly convenes) that this state is not fulfilling its responsibilities,” he said.

Martin said Murray Superintendent Vickie Reed will be called as a witness.

“Murray County has been a leader (in the consortium),” he said, “and Steve Loughridge (finance director) has been acknowledged as an expert in school financing.”

“It’s put us under a terrible financial strain,” said board chairman Julius Weyman. “We’ve had to cut back and cut back.”

Elizabeth Gould, a board member for two years, agreed and said she saw the cutbacks as an educator and knows they have cut into schools’ abilities to purchase materials for the classroom.

In other action, the board:

• Announced that collections for the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax in July jumped a startling 56.2 percent, from a projected $209,326 to $582,025.