TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Five county school districts -- including Florida's largest, Miami-Dade -- asked a three-judge appellate panel Monday for a new trial in a lawsuit that challenged the state's funding formula, which has cost them millions of dollars.

The Legislature in 2004 replaced a provision that had given extra dollars to school districts with high living costs based consumer prices including housing. The new formula is based instead on a survey of local wages.

Under the new plan, Duval got the largest funding increase -- about $8.85 million. Clay County received $1.35 million additional money, Nassau got approximately $485,000 and St. Johns saw an extra $68,000.

The change was based on the supposition teachers are willing to work for less in places with beaches and other amenities than in rural areas and other less glamorous locales.

"They are not apples and oranges. They are apples and bread," said Theodore Doran, a lawyer representing Volusia and Monroe counties. "Amenities have nothing to do with price."

The panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal will rule at a later date on whether to reverse a trial judge who last year upheld the new formula. Circuit Judge Kevin Davey ruled the five districts failed to show what the Legislature did was illegal or unconstitutional.

Doran said the formula has contributed to a desperate situation in Monroe, which includes the Florida Keys, because teachers cannot afford even the lowest priced houses costing about $350,000. Monroe has passed an additional half-mill tax -- 50 cents per $1,000 of property value -- but still has a 30 percent annual turnover among teachers, Doran said.

Volusia, a coastal county that includes Daytona Beach, cannot compete with neighboring inland counties that benefit from the new formula although they are only a short drive from Volusia's beaches, he said.

Doran and Rodolfo Sorondo Jr., a lawyer for the Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach county school boards, argued they never got a fair chance to present their case during the non-jury trial.

The state's lawyer, Daniel Brown, responded that even an economist who testified for Sorondo's clients was unable to back up their argument that the new formula "was somehow economic voodoo."

The lawyers for the districts argued Davey also erred by failing to allow legislative staffers to verify that documents they wanted to introduce were authentic and issuing a written decision inconsistent with comments he made in court.

They also cited a Florida Supreme Court opinion issued after Davey's decision. It struck down a voucher program that had allowed children from failing public schools to attend private schools at taxpayer expense.

Doran said the Supreme Court decision, based on a 1998 amendment to the Florida Constitution that requires the state to make "adequate provision" for a uniform system of public schools, supports the districts' argument their funding is inadequate.

Brown argued the amendment pertains to the entire state school budget, or the whole "pie," but the districts have just claimed that "their slices of the pie are inadequate."