Lawsuit says California's funding for school facilities discriminates against poorer districts
Key Highlights
- The lawsuit argues that California's school facility funding system discriminates against low-wealth districts.
- Wealthier districts can more easily pass bonds and secure larger funds, creating an unfair funding gap.
- The disparities include facility problems like toxic mold, leaky roofs and unsafe playgrounds.
A lawsuit contends that the state of California operates a discriminatory school facility funding system that forces children in low-wealth districts to learn in buildings with toxic mold, leaky classrooms, failing HVAC systems and dangerous playgrounds while wealthy districts receive funds to build state-of-the-art facilities.
Public Advocates, a civil rights law firm, has filed the legal challenge on behalf of students, families and educators. The lawsuit asserts that California’s School Facility Program and its method for funding major school renovations violates students’ fundamental right to a quality education.
The state requires districts to raise 40% of modernization costs locally before gaining access to state funding. The lawsuit argues that the system favors wealthy districts where it is easier to pass bonds and the bonds tend to be larger. This advantage is compounded because the state provides 60% of the costs of all approved projects, regardless of the wealth of the district.
The constitutional challenge mirrors California’s landmark Serrano v. Priest case, also brought by Public Advocates, which struck down wealth-based discrimination in school operations funding 50 years ago. Just as Serrano established that it was unlawful to make “the quality of a child’s education a function of the wealth of his parents and neighbors,” today’s School Facility Program creates identical violations.
“Fixing the School Facilities Program is not just about ensuring that all students have a safe and healthy environment to go to school,” said Jetaun Stevens, Senior Staff Attorney at Public Advocates. “It is also about ensuring that students in low-wealth districts have the same educational opportunities–whether it be in the science lab, on the athletic field or the performing arts stage–as students in wealthier communities."
The disparities are stark and dangerous. In Del Norte County, students learn in dilapidated buildings and portables with lead-based paint, bathrooms lacking heat during extreme winter weather, and dangerous playgrounds and fields; water leaks persist and modernization projects remain unfunded.
The plaintiffs seek a court order requiring California to distribute facility funding in a manner that enables low-wealth districts an equal opportunity to modernize their facilities. They want the state to adopt a sliding scale that provides more state funding to fiscally disadvantaged low-wealth districts and to end the first-come, first-served application process that favors the wealthy.