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School board supports lawsuit against state

(Updated: Thursday, July 01, 2010, 2:57 PM)

On June 14, the Yosemite Unified School District Board of Trustees voted to support a lawsuit against California's education finance system.

The historic lawsuit was filed against the State of California requesting that the current education finance system be declared unconstitutional and that the state be required to establish a school finance system that provides all students an equal opportunity to meet the academic goals set by the state.

The case, Robles-Wong, et al. v. State of California, was filed in the Superior Court of California in Alameda County. Specifically, the suit asks the court to compel the State to align its school finance system -- its funding policies and mechanisms -- with the educational program that the State has put in place.

To do this, plaintiffs allege, the State must scrap its existing finance system; do the work to determine how much it actually costs to fund public education to meet the state's own program requirements and the needs of California's school children and develop and implement a new finance system consistent with Constitutional requirements.

The lawsuit was filed by a broad coalition, including more than 60 individual students and their families, nine school districts from throughout the state, the California School Boards Association, California State PTA and the Association of California School Administrators.

John Reynolds, YUSD board president, is Madera County's representative on the California School Board Association Delegate Assermbly. He brought details of the lawsuite to the attention of the Yosemite trustees.

"Filing this lawsuit was a last resort," said California School Boards Association President Frank Pugh. "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. 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. The $17 billion in cuts to education have only made a dire situation even worse. California's unstable, unsound and insufficient school finance system is robbing our students of an education."

"This lawsuit seeks to ensure that the State, the Legislature and the Governor comply with the Constitution and fund and deliver the promised education program to all students in the state," said Bill Abrams, a partner at the law firm of Bingham McCutchen and counsel for plaintiff students and families. California has set clear requirements for what schools are expected to teach and what students are expected to learn. But the state has failed in its obligation to provide the resources necessary to meet these requirements, the lawsuit contends. Academic achievement results show California's unstable school finance system denies students the opportunity to become proficient in the state's academic standards, lawsuit supporters said.

"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," said Chuck Weis, president of the Association of California School Administrators. "We are asking the courts to require the State to meet the expectations set by law in the Constitution."

The Constitution gives education financing a unique priority by requiring that "from all state revenues there shall first be set apart the monies to be applied by the State for support of the public school system." Instead, school financing has been battered by instability and as a result all students suffer. Only half of all California students are proficient in English-language arts; and less than half -- approximately 46% -- are proficient in mathematics. In addition, fewer than 70% of California students graduate from high school.

"We require students to meet high education standards and then deny them the resources they need to meet those standards," said Jo A.S. Loss, president of the California State PTA. "We must have a system that allows schools to deliver a high-quality education for all children -- in good times and in tough times." Currently, the state ranks 47 among all states in its per-pupil spending on education, spending $2,856 less per pupil than the national average.

Unless the State fixes the broken school finance system, students will be denied the opportunity to become informed citizens and productive members of society.

Details: fixschoolfinance.org

California School Board Association contributed to this story.