Hamilton County Schools’ five-year-old lawsuit against the state of Tennessee over school funding was dismissed in court last week.
The Hamilton County Board of Education voted unanimously in October to dismiss the case, citing advice from the board’s legal counsel and the work state legislators have done to improve the state’s school funding formula, known as the Basic Education Plan (BEP).
The case was dropped in Davidson County’s Chancery Court on Jan. 2, Chalkbeat Tennessee reports, but two of the state’s largest school districts – Metro Nashville Public Schools and Shelby County Schools – are still set to go to trial over their own case later this year.
Hamilton County, along with six other school districts, filed the lawsuit in March 2015, arguing the state wasn’t providing sufficient funding for schools. Months later, Shelby County followed suit and also filed a lawsuit, stating the lack of funding especially hurts the district’s large share of poor students. Metro Nashville Public Schools joined two years later.
The lawsuits brought against the state each broadly claim schools are not receiving the funding entitled to them under the BEP funding formula and each lawsuit describes specific ways the lack of funding impacts the districts individually.