K–12 | Daily Report

Flickr photo by Paul De Los Reyes

In May, a coalition of grassroots groups threatened to sue California if something wasn't done to reform how public school education is funded. On Monday, the Campaign for Quality Education, Californians for Justice, Public Advocates and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, made good on its promise and filed a complaint with the Alameda County Superior Court – becoming the second lawsuit to call the state's funding model into question. 

On Tuesday, Paul Tran, communications director at Californians for Justice, shared with California Watch the thinking behind the lawsuit. Below are some excerpts from the conversation:

Q: What is the lawsuit basically saying?

A: The lawsuit's contention is that education is a fundamental right of young people provided by the California Constitution and the California Supreme Court. We are suing because by everyone's general knowledge, that's not happening. All students are not being provided a quality education. Seventeen billion dollars in budget cuts over two years. Forty-fourth in the nation in spending. Thirty percent of students not graduating. That gets even higher when we talk about African-American and Latino students. So we're saying one of the factors for this is that students are attending broken schools. The major reason for the broken schools is the broken funding system, so we're suing to fix the broken funding system.

Q: What's the difference between your lawsuit and the other lawsuit, Robles-Wong?

A: We're suing from different perspectives with different demands. We work with students and parents from low-income and immigrant communities. We're asking for a fix, but our lawsuit is also asking, specifically, for preschools for low-income students and a better data-tracking system for students and teachers. Their lawsuit (Robles-Wong) is a little more open-ended.

Q: Here's a devil's advocate question. You're filing this lawsuit at a time when there are unprecedented budget problems. Why do this now?

A: In times of crisis sometimes people think of only the short term. We want to be a voice for the long term. Students of color make up 70 percent of the state. So what do we do with that 70 percent when they turn 18? We have to think of where is revenue going to come from in the future? Where is our civil society going to come from? Who's going to be the voters? We can't overlook that. This is not a fringe request … Yes, we're asking for more funding but we're also asking for efficiency and transparency in funding. Even the governor himself has called this system broken. It is understood to be the most complicated school-funding system in the nation with antiquated laws, piecemealed from every decade. So we think this is a great time. When your pocket is tight, that's when you have to re-assess where you spend money. If we keep going down this path, losing so many of our students, it's just going to create further expenditures.

Q: A skeptic might say, 'But you're asking the same people who screwed this up to fix it.'

A: Yes and no (laughs). I agree, but that's the system we have. The Legislature sort of put this together and now we're asking for some kind of rhyme or reason. We're asking for a real system that takes into account what it really costs to educate students for a 21st century career.

Q: What's the real damage being caused by the current system? Or is it just that you want more money. Why should I care?

A: These are people with dreams. They deserve the opportunity. This is what this state and this country is about. There are so many ways you can look at it, but you can look at it fiscally. Education is the key to good health, to a stable society, to civic engagement and to work. If you have millions of people who are undereducated, in the end you always have to pay the piper. Do we want to pay for this now and create a prosperous state, or pay for this later and create a less prosperous state? I think we are really looking at a crisis in the future of the state if we don't make these investments now.

Q: What happens if a judge agrees with you? Do we know what a fix looks like?

A: I think it would be sent to the Legislature, maybe as a court-mandated directive to address this within a certain number of years. They (the Legislature) would probably set up a task force or committee to study other states. It would almost be like a start over.

For more information on the two state funding lawsuits, go to www.fixschoolfinance.org or www.fairschoolsnow.org.