PIERRE - The Rapid City School District is not providing an adequate education to many of its students, a former member of the district's school board testified Monday in the trial of a lawsuit that challenges South Dakota's funding system for education.

Eric Abrahamson, whose term on the school board ended in July, testified about cuts that he believes have hurt the district's ability to help many students, particularly American Indians and those from poor families.

When Circuit Judge Lori Wilbur asked if the Rapid City School District is providing an adequate education to some of its students, Abrahamson answered: "Probably."

Abrahamson noted that the school district is on an improvement plan for math and reading because it has not made the required annual progress on tests given under the federal school improvement law known as No Child Left Behind. The district is not meeting the needs of many groups, including poor students, Indian students and those with disabilities, he said.

Asked if money is the main reason for the problems, Abrahamson said: "I believe it's a substantial reason."

But in questioning by Assistant Attorney General Diane Best, Abrahamson acknowledged the district provides all required courses and offers students many electives. Best also suggested that most budget cuts in Rapid City have not involved sports or other extracurricular activities.

Abrahamson testified at the beginning of the third week of the trial on the lawsuit, which alleges the state is violating the South Dakota Constitution by underfunding school districts.

A handful of students and their parents are the official plaintiffs in the lawsuit, but the legal challenge has been supported by nearly two-thirds of the state's school districts.

Those who filed the lawsuit plan to finish presenting their main case on Tuesday, and the state then will begin presenting its witnesses to defend the school funding system.

The state contends the system is constitutional and that spending levels do not necessarily correlate with student achievement.

The plaintiffs have presented evidence, much of it given by school superintendents, designed to show that a lack of funding has caused problems in several school districts.

Abrahamson testified on his own behalf, not on behalf of the school district or its board. District officials have said they support the ideas behind the lawsuit but are not taking any direct part in the case.

Abrahamson, a historian who is running for a seat in the Legislature, said the dropout rate increased during his years on the Rapid City School Board. The overall graduation rate this year was 78 percent, and only 41 percent for Native American students, he said.

In 2002, the district cut high school teaching staff by giving each staff member teach six periods a day instead of five, Abrahamson said. That gave teachers less time to prepare for classes and less time to help students one-on-one, he said.

Other cuts over the last decade or more involved school librarians, middle school foreign language teachers, counselors and administrators, Abrahamson said.

The school district also made substantial cuts in this year's budget, he said.

Abrahamson said he believes that if the district gets more money, it should boost teachers' salaries, lower teachers' workload, cut class size and work on programs that can improve student scores on achievement tests. He said the average teachers' salary exceeded $38,000 in the district last year.

He acknowledged that student enrollment dropped by about 1,000 students from 1998 until the 2004-2005 school year, when it had nearly 13,000 students. But under the state funding formula, the district also lost money when it lost students, he said.

The district's budget remained about the same when adjusted for inflation over the past seven years, Abrahamson said.

When asked what he considers an adequate education, Abrahamson said: "In my mind the state and the federal government have laid out guidelines for us as to what we should be achieving. We're not achieving those."