More than 20 years after the Arkansas Supreme Court’s landmark Lake View ruling, it’s time to ask a fundamental question: Are education outcomes better?
Spoiler alert: They’re not.
That question sat quietly beneath a packed agenda at Monday’s joint meeting of the House and Senate Education Committees, where lawmakers heard presentations on the legal framework behind school funding adequacy.
What Lake View Was About
The Lake View decisions were not narrowly about money. They were about outcomes.
The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that the state’s education system was unconstitutional because it failed to provide students with a substantially equal opportunity for an adequate education. Where a child lived largely determined the quality of education they received. Equal funding formulas existed on paper, but disparities in staffing, facilities, curriculum, and academic opportunity were widespread.
In response, the legislature fundamentally restructured school funding and accountability. It adopted a formal definition of adequacy, created foundation funding, established minimum teacher salaries, invested in facilities, and committed to an ongoing adequacy study meant to evaluate whether the system was actually working.
By 2007, the court concluded the state had met its constitutional obligations, largely because Arkansas had put a system in place to continually review, adjust, and fund education based on need.
Compliance was achieved. The process was institutionalized.
Outcomes Were Always the Point
The adequacy study is not just a budgeting exercise. It is meant to answer whether the system is producing meaningful educational opportunity in practice.
That is where outcomes matter.
Some of the long-term indicators highlighted in the historical record remain troubling:
- Arkansas continues to rank near the bottom nationally in adult educational attainment
- College-going rates have actually declined since the Lake View ruling
- Median household income has improved only marginally relative to other states
The Homeschool Question That Cut Through the Room
One of the most pointed moments of the meeting came from Representative Julie Mayberry:
If the state now gives homeschool families public money through Education Freedom Accounts, what legally stops those families from demanding access to the same kinds of benefits public schools use state funds for — things like utilities, insurance, and instructional costs?
Mayberry pointed out there’s no case law settling that question and suggested the distinction may be vulnerable if challenged. She also flagged that, if homeschoolers and private-school families receive public dollars, the legislature may eventually have to decide whether they count as stakeholders in the adequacy process.
“We don’t have any case law on this,” Representative Mayberry said. “No one has challenged that. And I’m just thinking that that’s kind of open to being challenged. If the school district can use– it’s the same source of funding– and if a school district can use it to pay for an electric bill, what keeps a homeschooler from not being able to use it for an electric bill?”
Lake View: Judicial Success, Student Failure?
The takeaway was that compliance is not the same as success. Checking the box to satisfy a judge has not translated to changing educational outcomes in Arkansas for the better.
Lake View was a remarkable move of the judiciary into the legislative power of the purse, dictating how lawmakers prioritize funding. It’s a costly step that has produced almost no improvement in key outcome measures.
Its stated intent of equalization actually meant some places, often communities that were intentionally investing in education, had to do less well so others might do better. Except that didn’t happen. The ships meant to rise…. didn’t.
Key Metrics Since Lake View
College-going rate
- 2001: 53% of Arkansas high school graduates attended college
- Fall 2021: 42% of public high school graduates attended college
Adult educational attainment
- Adults (25+) with a bachelor’s degree
- 2001: 49th nationally
- 2024: 49th nationally
- Adults (25+) with a graduate or professional degree
- 2001: Tied for last nationally
- 2024: 50th nationally
Median household income
- 2001: 49th nationally
- 2024: 48th nationally
