Court of appeal finally to hear case charging underfunding of schools
CREDIT: CALIFORNIA SCHOOL BOARDS ASSOCIATION
Plaintiffs in the Robles-Wong v. State of California lawsuit announce the case at a press conference in Sacramento on May 20, 2010.
This month, a state court of appeal will hear arguments in two long-delayed lawsuits, filed during the economic recession six years ago, charging that the state violated children’s constitutional rights by underfunding education.
The lawsuits were big news at the time because of the cross-section of plaintiffs behind them. Robles-Wong et al v. California was jointly filed by the California School Boards Association, the state PTA, the Association of California School Administrators, the California Teachers Association, and the Youth & Education Law Project at Stanford Law School, representing low-income children. The other, Campaign for Quality Education v. California, was filed by Public Advocates Inc., on behalf of five nonprofits serving low-income, minority families.
The companion lawsuits, which the courts have since combined into one case, argued that the state’s “insufficient, irrational and unstable” school funding system failed to meet the constitutional requirement to “encourage by all suitable means the promotion of intellectual, scientific, moral and agricultural improvement.” Translated into 21st century terms, the Legislature has imposed graduation requirements, academic standards, programs and school requirements, but hasn’t provided school districts with enough money to effectively provide them to all children, the lawsuits argue.Court of appeal finally to hear case charging underfunding of schools | EdSource:
