California Lawsuit Demands New School Finance System

Plaintiffs Want Court to Declare Current Funding Mechanism Unconstitutional

Written By: Ben Boychuk
Published In: School Reform News
Publication date: 05/20/2010
Publisher: The Heartland Institute

A coalition of establishment education groups and school districts on Thursday filed a lawsuit in a California court, alleging the Golden State’s Byzantine school finance system is unconstitutional. The plaintiffs, led by the California School Boards Association, say the state must restore billions of dollars in cuts and seek a new process to ensure schools are equitably funded.

“This lawsuit is not about adequacy but about getting the courts to declare the current school finance system unconstitutional,” California School Boards Association Executive Director Scott Plotkin said in a statement. “There is no rational connection between the system we have and the support that it’s given.”

Precedent in Kansas City
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Court-ordered school finance plans have a poor track record. A federal judge in 1985 ordered Kansas City to raise property taxes to pay for citywide school improvements in a landmark desegregation case. Although Kansas City school officials spent more than $2 billion between 1985 and 2003, students made few gains in academic performance.

In March, Kansas City Superintendent John Covington announced plans to close as many as half of city schools due to declining enrollment.

The California School Board Association’s complaint argues that public schools must have primary claim to tax funding under the state constitution, but does not specify how much money the state would need to appropriate to insure school funding equity. The lawsuit does not ask for mandatory tax increases

Republican Candidate James Scholz
Missouri schools have repeatedly dropped their standards to comply with federal requirements as the "No child left behind" and many other federal programs. Missouri 4th District has been ignored and the school system is one of the worse in the State of Missouri. It is time to get the federal government out of the education system and bring it back to the people, give the teachers the responsibility and authority to make decisions as they are taught - fail a student if they don't meet the requirements - they'll get over it, it will not make them into serial killers, or some other strange animal - did it hurt you?