Now that's 'discovery'

Brad Jones / Face The State

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers

The Attorney General's office may soon become home to the biggest cache of school finance data in the state - more than even the Department of Ed.

Republican AG John Suthers' office has requested a mountain of paper from almost every school district in the state, from board meetings and agendas, to check registers and demographic data - all dating back to 2005. In total, 160 districts received the same 26-point open records request dated last Friday.

According to Suthers PR man Mike Saccone, the information is needed to mount the state's defense against a lawsuit alleging school funding is so thin it violates the state constitution's guarantee of a "thorough and uniform" education system. Face The State recently reported on the campaign to rope more districts in as plaintiffs in the case - 18 districts are now on board - as well as to get the districts to pitch in funding for the effort. Their goal: convince a judge to mandate state lawmakers appropriate more cash for K-12 education.

Saccone says the AG's office will work with school districts in complying with the open-records request, including house calls to district offices across the state if necessary. They'll even pay "reasonable" research fees for compiling the data. (There are 178 school districts in Colorado, but the open-records request was only necessary for those not party to the lawsuit; the plaintiffs will provide the same information through the legal discovery process.)

It may take the better part of the summer for Suthers to get the information he's looking for, but when he does, Colorado's top prosecutor will essentially have created the most comprehensive record of school spending ever amassed in the state.

The lawsuit, Lobato v. State, has been criticized as an expensive effort to essentially usurp lawmakers' ultimate authority over the state budget. Even some proponents of higher education spending are skeptical of the effort, saying even if plaintiffs are victorious, enforcement may prove to be a difficult or even futile effort. Tax and budget hawks warn of higher taxes if a court mandates new spending, as happened with a similar lawsuit in Kansas.

But there is a silver lining: We will soon have one-stop shopping for long-sought school spending data, if Suthers is in a sharing mood.