A Unique Approach to Education Funding Litigation in Michigan: The Headlee Amendment

Michigan voters passed an amendment (popularly known as the Headlee Amendment) to its Constitution in 1978 that prohibits the State of Michigan from requiring local governments to provide new services without supplying them with the funding necessary to accomplish them. Several lawsuits have been brought since the amendment's passage to challenge new state requirements. Specifically, Article 9, Sec. 29 requires:

A new activity or service or an increase in the level of any activity or
service beyond that required by existing law shall not be required by the
legislature or any state agency of units of Local Government, unless a state
appropriation is made and disbursed to pay the unit of Local Government
for any necessary increased costs.

Recently, in the case of Adair v. State of Michigan, 450 school districts in Michigan brought a lawsuit challenging the State's 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 allocations for education funding. The challenge questioned funding for new reporting requirements, a student-teacher data link, to Michigan's Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI). As a result of a 2010 court decision in a related lawsuit, the Legislature appropriated $25 million for 2010-2011 to pay for local districts reporting costs to CEPI. The Legislature allocated $34 million for 2011-2012 after a student-teacher data link requirement was added to the system.

The Michigan Supreme Court dismissed this most recent lawsuit, holding that the plaintiffs were required to allege specific amounts of underfunding rather than relying upon expert testimony that the schools were underfunded. The Michigan Court of Appeals had allowed the plaintiffs to demonstrate that the funding methodology used by the Legislature to determine the amount of the appropriation was materially flawed. The Supreme Court explained that the Headlee amendment requires plaintiffs to quantify the extent of the harm so that the state government can anticipate financial adjustments that it needs to make to fully fund local government compliance with new laws and to avoid "litigation gamesmanship."

I've been following Headlee amendment litigation since I began working as an attorney in Michigan 20 years ago. It has always been a very complex and time consuming endeavor. I think the idea behind the law is sound--make sure the State pays for costs it is passing along to local governments. I also believe, for the most part, its operation is beneficial--school districts and other local government entities receiving more more when more is required of them. However, the enforcement mechanism--lawsuits--is cumbersone. I know this is the way our legal system operates, and it would be helpful to have another way to resolve these disputes. I see a similar sentiment in the court's reference to "litigation gamesmanship." Are all of these iterations of Headlee lawsuits necessary or is another solution possible?

Comments

[Micheal Elijah]

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