North Dakota's school finance truce is an unusual step in education lawsuits, although settlement talks and study commissions have been common in other states trying to work out problems, experts say.

"North Dakota's is sort of a different pace," said Michael Griffith, a policy analyst for the Education Commission of the States, which monitors education finance litigation nationwide.

"But it will end up, technically, the same way," Griffith said. "One way or another, the legislature will decide what happens."

Molly Hunter, director of the National Access Network, an education advocacy group that has supported school finance litigation, said the North Dakota school districts' agreement to delay their lawsuit for more than a year was unusual.

However, the lawsuit's continued presence will add pressure for the Legislature to act on the schools' demands, Hunter said.

"Sometimes, just the fact that people bring the lawsuit … causes a bump-up in the funding," Hunter said. "There does seem to be a positive impact from the supporters of public education."

Nine school districts are suing the state and a group of four officials, including Gov. John Hoeven and Wayne Sanstead, the superintendent of public instruction. They argue the Legislature has not provided enough state aid to local schools, or divided the money fairly.

The districts have agreed to suspend their lawsuit, in exchange for Hoeven's promise to appoint a new Commission on Education Improvement to study education finance, and include a $60 million increase in state school spending in his next budget proposal to the Legislature.

The lawsuit's trial was scheduled to begin Feb. 27 in Williston. Northwest District Judge David Nelson signed an order last week agreeing to the delay. The nine districts backing the lawsuit are Des Lacs-Burlington, Devils Lake, Grafton, Hatton, Larimore, Surrey, Thompson, Valley City and Williston.

Before the schools filed the lawsuit in October 2003, the state Department of Public Instruction commissioned a study by Augenblick, Palaich and Associates Inc., of Littleton, Colo., an education finance consultancy. The consultant's findings were part of two separate reports, issued in June and July 2003.

Its report concluded North Dakota spends about 70 percent of what is needed to provide an adequate education to the state's public school students. It estimated that North Dakota needed an annual education budget increase of almost $200 million to accomplish that objective.

In other states, similar studies have been used to attempt to pry more education spending from legislators, Griffith said.

"The adequacy study is commonly used for leverage, for the Legislature to come up with a new funding formula," he said. "In North Dakota, that step was skipped in a way, but I don't know if it will make any difference in how things turn out."

North Dakota's school finance system has been poked and examined by a number of legislative committees and "blue-ribbon" panels. Hunter and Griffith said education commissions in other states have a mixed record of success.

"Some of them really do have a major effect. What they do is get everyone to the table," Griffith said. "It's better to come and get a negotiated settlement if you can, and it sounds as if it is possible" in North Dakota.

Warren Larson, Williston's school superintendent and a member of Hoeven's new Commission on Education Improvement, said the inclusion of a broad array of interests on the panel would improve its chances for success.

The commission will have three school superintendents, one school business manager, four state legislators and Sanstead. Lt. Gov. Jack Dalrymple will be its chairman, and it will have nonvoting members representing teachers, school board members and administrators.

"In the past, you haven't had the composition of a team like we have now," Larson said. "We have, essentially, every key group in education represented at the table. Everybody will have input."