Lawsuit seeks to block school district mergers in Arkansas

From Arkansas News: Forcing the Weiner (Ark.) School District to merge with a neighboring school system violates the constitution, a lawsuit contends. A group calling itself Friends of the Weiner School District filed the suit to block the consolidation. The Arkansas Board of Education ordered the consolidation of the Weiner district with the neighboring Harrisburg district. A 2003 law states that when an Arkansas public school district falls below 350 students for two consecutive years, it is subject to mandatory consolidation. The lawsuit seeks a declaration that Act 60 is unconstitutional and an order preventing the state from consolidating, annexing or closing the Weiner district.