Key ruling on lawsuit coming
Robles-Wong challenges state’s school financing
Published: January 1, 2011
Attorneys for CSBA and other plaintiffs in the historic California school finance lawsuit, Robles-Wong v. California, presented oral arguments and responded to questions from Alameda County Superior Court Judge Steven Brick during a Dec. 10 hearing on the state’s request for a demurrer that challenges the legal sufficiency of the case.
By filing a request for a demurrer, the state is asking the judge to rule that even if all the alleged facts in the lawsuit are true, plaintiffs would still not be entitled to any judicial relief.
After the two-hour hearing, during which parties responded to written questions posed by the judge about the education provisions in the state constitution, he took the matter under submission. He indicated he would issue a ruling by mid-January.
CSBA’s Education Legal Alliance, public school students and other supporters of public education filed the Robles-Wong lawsuit last May. It challenges the state’s system for financing public schools and seeks a judge’s order that would require the state to design and implement a finance system that has “a coherent or functional relationship” to the educational program the state requires schools to deliver.
Plaintiffs contend that all California children have the fundamental right to a “system of common schools,” provided by the state, that guarantees all students equal access to the state-prescribed educational program and gives them an equal opportunity to develop the skills and capacities the state has deemed necessary to achieve economic and social successes in society, to participate meaningfully in political and community life, and to become informed citizens and productive members of society.
“Today’s hearing provided us the opportunity to address questions from the court, while emphasizing the need to align California’s school finance system with the educational program that the state has put into place,” said Richard Hamilton, who heads the Education Legal Alliance.
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