The state Supreme Court is giving lawmakers until July to work on a school funding fix without further court intervention.

In an order released Friday, the court postponed further proceedings in a lawsuit over the issue unless someone convinces it that good cause exists for it to step in.

Londonderry and a coalition of towns suing New Hampshire over school funding wanted the court to make lawmakers determine its cost and come up with a way to pay for it by June 30.

The state asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit or, if it wouldn't dismiss it, postpone further court action until after the 2008 legislative session - which is what the court did.

The state had argued that the Legislature completed the first of four mandates set down by the court needed to settle the long battle over school funding - defining an adequate education - and is working on the second mandate - determining its cost.

A special legislative commission has been working on determining a cost and is holding a public input session Monday at the State House.

The towns wanted guarantees that whatever cost the Legislature settles on is funded next spring, not left to a future Legislature.

The back-and-forth between the two sides was in response to a July request by the court on whether the case should be sent back to the lower court.

Initially, the coalition said it would not push for the court to step in now if the state promised to fulfill the three remaining court mandates - determine the state's cost, fund it and hold districts accountable to deliver it - also by June 30. The districts accepted the definition enacted by lawmakers.

The state only promised to determine the cost, which prompted the coalition to ask the court to require the state to fulfill the remaining mandates.

The order said the "court concludes that further proceedings in this case shall be stayed until July 1, 2008, provided, however, that any party may at any time move for good cause shown to lift the stay."

The state has struggled over school funding for years.

In 1991, Claremont and four other property-poor towns sued over the state's reliance on local property taxes to pay for schools. A series of Supreme Court decisions held that the state has a duty to provide an adequate education that is adequately funded.

A key 1997 ruling found the state's reliance on local property taxes for most school funding unconstitutional.

Last year, Londonderry and a group of towns won a lawsuit in superior court over the aid system put in place in 2005. The state appealed and the high court sided with the towns. That funding system has since been replaced with an interim one to give lawmakers time to craft a better system.

Last September, the court left the aid system in place but set a June 30, 2007, deadline for the state to define an adequate education. The court reiterated its four long-standing mandates that the state must meet to comply with the constitution: define an adequate education, price it, pay for it and hold towns accountable for delivering it. The court has said the amount need not be the same for every pupil, but it emphatically rejected aid systems that help only selected towns.

Gov. John Lynch signed a law June 29 that defined adequacy. The definition includes subject areas, such as math and reading, without tying them to the hours taught or other specific cost components. It also mandates kindergarten.

Lynch would like to target aid to the neediest towns, but a constitutional amendment he needed to allow that died in the House this year. Senate Democrats tried to revive the amendment, but lacked the votes to pass it and decided to wait until January to try again. Lynch says he hasn't given up on putting an amendment before voters in November 2008.

By NORMA LOVE

The Associated Press