CSBA's ELA to petition State Supreme Court in school funding case
Published: June 1, 2016
CSBA and other plaintiffs in the Robles-Wong v. State of California lawsuit expressed disappointment in an April ruling by the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco, but said they would file a petition to challenge it.
In a 2-1 ruling for the defendants, the Appeals Court held that the California Constitution does not guarantee the right to an adequate level of education as defined by funding or by qualitative measures, stipulating only that the state must provide for a “system of common schools.”
“The decision is truly disappointing for California’s students and families,” said CSBA CEO & Executive Director Vernon M. Billy. “We firmly believe all students in California have a fundamental right to an education funding level that meets the standards the state has set — and that is currently being denied to many, especially low-income students and students of color.”
Added Keith Bray, CSBA’s general counsel and director of the association’s Education Legal Alliance, “We will be asking the Supreme Court to review the appellate court’s decision.”
CSBA, the Association of California School Administrators and the California State PTA, along with nine individual school districts and approximately 60 individual students and their families, brought forward the case in 2010. They alleged that the state’s school finance system violates article IX (the Education Article) of the California Constitution.
Plaintiffs in Robles-Wong made two key claims when filing the case:
- The state of California currently operates a school finance system that prevents schools and school districts from providing all students access to an education that satisfies their fundamental interest in being prepared to obtain economic security and participate in our democratic institutions; and
- The state is violating its duty to “provide for” a system of common schools and to “keep up and support” the system it has established.
The case had been pending for several years after Alameda County Superior Court Judge Steven Brick initially rejected the plaintiffs’ core claims in November 2011. Five years later, the issue of adequate school funding still remains vital. California ranks among the last of the states nationally in per-pupil funding and has among the largest class sizes. Many groups, from English learners to African-Americans to foster youth, continue to face challenges academically, an issue explored in-depth in the spring issue of CSBA’s California Schools magazine and recent CSBA Policy Briefs. Many school districts statewide are just now returning to funding levels from 2007, before the recession led to years of budget cuts and staff reductions.
“Our core arguments still hold true,” said Billy. “The state of California has an obligation to adequately fund our schools. We’re going to continue pursuing whatever means may be possible to address the state’s failure to address our inadequate funding levels.”
In his ruling, while acknowledging that children in California have a fundamental right to an education, Brick ruled that the state Constitution does not require the Legislature to fund it at any particular level, “however devastating the effects of such underfunding have been on the quality of public school education.” Oral argument on appeal of that ruling took place January 27 in San Francisco.
CSBA and other plaintiffs in the case promised to continue to fight for adequate funding for California public school students.
“We will continue to fight to see that the state meets its obligation to provide all students, regardless of background, with an equitable and high-quality education,” said CSBA President Chris Ungar.