Growing school districts drop funding lawsuit

Three Indiana school districts are dropping a lawsuit against the state that claimed the method for distributing school funding treated growing districts unfairly.

Hamilton Southeastern schools Superintendent Brian Smith said at a news conference Thursday that the lawsuit was no longer needed because of changes made to the school funding formula as part of the new state budget approved by legislators last month.

The Hamilton Southeastern and Franklin Township districts in suburban Indianapolis and Middlebury Community Schools in Elkhart County filed the lawsuit last year.

They argued the school formula violated the state constitution's requirement for "general and uniform" public education funding because districts get different per-pupil amounts. A judge had not yet ruled on the merits of the lawsuit.