CSBA and education leaders sue state
Historic school funding lawsuit demands the state provide the education the constitution guarantees students
Published: May 20, 2010
For years, CSBA has been advocating the need to “change the conversation” about school funding—from continual debate about meeting an arbitrary minimum funding level set out by Proposition 98, to a coherent discussion about how best to provide for a system of public schools that is equipped to educate all students to California’s high academic standards.
That day finally came today with the filing of a historic lawsuit challenging the very fundamentals of the way California pays for public education. The suit asks the court to declare the current school funding system unconstitutional because it is not aligned with the goals the state requires of schools, is not based on the actual costs of providing the required education, and does not give all students an equal opportunity to learn to the same high standards. Further, the lawsuit asks the court to require the state to design and implement a finance system that does achieve its constitutional obligations.
Robles-Wong, et al. v. State of California was filed in Alameda County Superior Court by CSBA and its Education Legal Alliance, the California State PTA and the Association of California School Administrators, along with nine school districts and 60 schoolchildren and their parents, as plaintiffs against the state of California.
“Abundant evidence shows that the State’s school finance system is fundamentally flawed and directly impedes the ability of school districts to provide students with the programs and services they need,” the complaint reads, going on to set out in detail the historical conditions that have led to California schools operating on one of the very lowest per-pupil budgets in the nation.
The cumulative effects of operating a standards-based education system without establishing its cost and year-over-year budget cuts have left schools unable to provide the educational services all students are guaranteed under the California Constitution, the suit alleges.
“Filing this lawsuit was a last resort,” CSBA President Frank Pugh said at a Sacramento press conference. “Education funding has been in a deteriorating spiral in California for decades. A failure to act now threatens the future of California’s students and the future of our state.”
Fundamental flaws predate budget crisis
Although the $17 billion in cuts to education over the past couple of years have made a dire situation worse, Pugh said, the flaws in the education funding system transcend the state’s current budget crisis.
“The governor and lawmakers have known for some time that the current school finance system is harming students and they’ve done nothing to remedy the crisis,” Pugh said. “California’s unstable, unsound and insufficient school finance system is robbing our students of an education.”
Numerous reports and studies over the past decade have clearly advised the state of the fundamental problems, said ACSA President Chuck Weis.
“The governor’s own Committee on Educational Excellence in 2007 concluded that our current system is not producing the results that taxpayers and citizens are counting on and that our students deserve,” Weis said. “We are asking the courts to require the State to meet the expectations set by law in the Constitution.”
Bill Abrams, a partner at the law firm of Bingham McCutchen and counsel for plaintiff students and families, explained why the lawsuit asks the court to rule the school finance system unconstitutional.
“The constitution requires that school funding ‘first be set apart’ to meet program demands, and provides that education is a fundamental right and must be made equally available to every child,” Abrams said. “Too often, this isn’t the case, and the state balances its budget on the backs of its students by cutting or underfunding education programs, and thus prevents schools from meeting its own education standards.”
Students named in the suit appeared at press conferences in San Francisco and Sacramento.
Maya Robles-Wong, the 16-year-old plaintiff for whom the lawsuit is named, detailed the cuts at her high school in Alameda, including summer school and college preparatory classes she needs and the loss of teachers who have been laid off.
“I’m not an expert in education finance,” Robles-Wong said in a statement, “but I know enough to say that it’s not because my teachers and our schools aren’t trying to give us what we need. I know that the real problem is that the State is not providing the support my school needs to teach me everything I need.”
The governor’s office, in response, said that it will “oppose the lawsuit and believes the state will prevail,” claiming to have education as a budget priority.
More information about the lawsuit and a copy of the complaint, which includes a historical perspective of school funding in California, is available at www.fixschoolfinance.org.