Beyond Williams: The campaign to secure adequate funding for California schools gets under way 

An investment in students and K-12 public education is an investment in children, the economy, society and democracy. Unfortunately, California’s investment over the past 20 years has been woefully inadequate. Despite the state’s status as the sixth largest economy in the world, California ranks 44th in the nation in per-pupil funding for students in kindergarten through grade 12.

At the same time, California has set high expectations for its students and public schools, and has adopted some of the most rigorous academic standards in the nation. Students, public school employees and school board members are held accountable for ensuring that all students become proficient in the knowledge and skills expected of them once they exit high school. California’s K-12 public schools educate over 6 million children who come from diverse backgrounds and circumstances. Every day, public schools are investing in all students, including one in five who live in poverty and more than 1.6 million children whose primary language is not English.

When the American Civil Liberties Union filed the Williams v. State of California lawsuit in 2000, there was widespread hope that the suit would help to turn the tide of public K-12 education funding in the state and pull it out of the downward spiral that began in the late 1970s. The Williams suit was brought with the best of intentions, claiming that California had failed in its duty to provide students in the lowest-performing schools with equal educational opportunity. However, it quickly became apparent that rather than addressing the adequacy of school resources, the suit would do little more than impose cumbersome regulations and monitoring of textbooks, facilities maintenance and teacher quality. Through the Education Legal Alliance, the California School Boards Association played a key role in settling the case in a way that minimizes the negative impact on districts and provides a modest amount of funding to help districts pay for instructional materials and repair of facilities.

Though CSBA’s work on the Williams suit qualified as a success, the association’s leadership and staff recognized that the result represented just the tip of the iceberg in terms of achieving our ultimate goal. So, for the past 12 months, CSBA has played a leading role in developing a campaign to accomplish what Williams did not — a level of funding in our schools that allows students to achieve the high level of standards that we have set for them.

Nationally, efforts to achieve adequacy in education funding have reached a critical mass. Such efforts have been undertaken in 45 states, with varying degrees of success. As we examined those campaigns over the past year, several common threads became apparent. First, it is evident that having a court declare the inadequacy of public education funding is just one piece of a much larger puzzle. While courts have the authority to make such a declaration, they do not have the ability to impose a solution on the bodies that can actually increase funding: governors and state legislatures.

Further, the most successful campaigns have included a public engagement process to ensure that communities and the public-at-large understand the importance, complexities and potential solutions around the concept of adequacy. It is important that this dialogue not become an insiders’ game. Students, parents, community members, taxpayers, educators, children’s advocates, policy-makers, civil rights advocates, researchers, opinion leaders and business representatives must be part of the process of creating policy about adequate funding. Empowering community organizers and developing local networks focused on informing and engaging community members is essential. At the same time, facilitated community dialogues help to assess the public’s level of understanding, concerns, preferences and values relative to public K-12 school funding.

In California, there is work in progress that could set the stage for a dramatic shift in the debate on K-12 school funding policy. Four prominent foundations — the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation and the Stuart Foundation — have commissioned a series of studies that will examine the cost of a high-quality education in California and review the effectiveness and efficiency of how resources are distributed in the state. At the same time, local grass roots organizations are gearing up to mobilize their communities.

It is within this current context that I am pleased to announce that CSBA, in partnership with Children Now, the California League of Women Voters and members of the Education Coalition, has received a major grant to begin the process of building a state coalition consisting of education and child advocates, business leaders, good-government groups and others to build consensus around school funding in the state, and advocate for change. In this effort, we are optimistic that we will be able to move past the divisive politics that have bogged this conversation down in the past and have a rational conversation about our public education goals, activities and resources, and find appropriate ways to ensure that they are aligned.

This campaign is not just about more money. Rather, it is about achieving one of CSBA’s fundamental goals, one which is inherent in the vision, mission and goals of the association. In the end, it is the very reason for our existence: to create a fair and equitable system where “the futures of all children are driven by their aspirations, and not bounded by their circumstances:” I implore all of you to join with us as we proceed with the campaign over the course of the next several years.