properly determine that they must only fine-tune certain aspects of the system.
Obviously they should not throw out the good with the bad without careful thought
and particular attention to detail. My concern is that the language of the majority is
too sweeping when it asserts that the result of the decision is that the entire system
of common schools is unconstitutional. We must leave it to the good common sense
of the legislature to develop an appropriate system of legislation.
Great care must be taken to differentiate the holding of the majority from dicta that
arises from the many words used in the opinion. As an example, references to
adequacy, a unitary system and definitions of efficiency are not binding on the
General Assembly in any sense.
I concur with the majority in again emphasizing that the sole responsibility for
providing a system of efficient common schools throughout the state lies with the
General Assembly. That is the sole holding of this case.
VANCE, Justice, dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. I believe the majority opinion is inherently inconsistent in that
it says that our system of common schools, to be constitutionally efficient, must
provide substantially equal educational opportunity for children throughout the
Commonwealth, yet it actually permits the continuation of a system which does not
provide substantially equal educational opportunity.
I believe this is so because the opinion expressly holds that individual school districts
may continue to levy taxes for school purposes to be used solely within the district.
[FN1]
Primarily, it is the levy of these taxes by local school districts, which produces
greatly disparate revenues in richer counties than in poorer ones, that has caused
the great disparity in school funding per child in the various districts throughout the
Commonwealth.
[FN1. The taxes levied by local school districts are local in the sense
that they are levied upon property within the district, but this court
has held on many occasions that these taxes are in fact state taxes
which have been authorized by the General Assembly to fulfill the
requirements of ?183 of the Kentucky Constitution. Cullinan v.
Jefferson County, Ky., 418 S.W.2d 407 (1967); Board of Education v.
City of Louisville, 288 Ky. 656, 157 S.W.2d 337 (1941);
Commonwealth v. Louisville National Bank, 220 Ky. 89, 294 S.W. 815
(1927).]
Although there are factors other than the amount of money available per child that
must be considered when determining the equality of educational opportunity, I
submit that this whole case is predicated upon the proposition that children who
reside in districts where the amount of funding available per child is
disproportionately less than is available in other districts will be denied an
educational opportunity which is equal to the educational opportunity afforded in
districts with vastly greater resources.
Because the value of taxable property is so much greater in some districts than
others, the continued levy of school taxes for use within individual districts, even if
levied at a uniform rate throughout the state and property is assessed at 100
percent of its value, will continue to produce much more revenue in richer counties
than in poorer ones. It follows that the continuation of such a tax policy will leave us
exactly where we are now, and the school system will not provide substantially equal
educational opportunity throughout the Commonwealth, but will in fact, result in
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