Viewpoints: State must be forced to fund education

As California students head back to school, they will be boarding a ship sinking below constitutionally minimum levels of quality and fairness. Once the envy of the nation with one of the best-funded and highest-performing school systems, today California is racing to the bottom - 44th of 50 states in per student spending levels and 46th in education spending as a percentage of personal income.

Starved for funding, districts cannot afford to hire adequate staff. California has the lowest staff-to-student ratio in the nation, taking together teachers, administrators and support personnel like counselors, librarians and nurses. Our classrooms last year had 7.5 more students per teacher and were over 50 percent larger than those in the rest of the nation. There are simply not enough adults in the system to deliver a quality education to everyone.

The pernicious consequences of California's shortsighted underinvestment are spreading to every classroom and every community. The result is that California's children are falling further behind, threatening the state's future competitiveness. Nearly one in three California students fails to graduate from high school. NAEP test scores released by the federal government this spring show California among the lowest-achieving states, alongside Mississippi and Alabama. Not only are California's low-income students and students of color disproportionately underachieving, but even the children of white, affluent and college-educated parents lag significantly behind their peers from other states.

The horrific budget cuts of the last two years, some $17 billion from the K-14 system, have brought the school system to its knees. Instead of expanding learning time as President Barack Obama has called for, many California districts are being forced to cut a week from the school year. Class sizes are skyrocketing - even kindergarten classes in many districts will now have 30 students. Computer labs and libraries are being shuttered; art, music and electives are being eliminated. Teachers, librarians, nurses and counselors by the thousands have been laid off. These are not the conditions we should ask our children to thrive in, or even to survive in.

The California Constitution guarantees all children a right to a quality education that prepares them for college, career and civic engagement. Our under-supported districts, however, are unable to provide this level of education to all California students. That is why five grass-roots organizations representing nearly half a million students and parents from across California, as well as 22 individual students and parents, filed Campaign for Quality Education v. California last month. We had no choice but to turn to the courts to unstick the legislative paralysis in Sacramento and force California to adequately and fairly fund our public schools.

We believe both that more funding is necessary and that public school funds can be more effectively spent. For starters, district funding should be based on what typical students need to succeed. On top of that, additional funding should be targeted to low-income, special-ed and English learner students who have additional hurdles to accessing the curriculum. Our lawsuit also demands that the state undertake other reforms - in addition to increased funding - to ensure it is spending for maximum effect. For example, given the broad consensus on the effectiveness of high-quality preschool programs for closing the achievement gap, our suit demands that all low-income students have this opportunity instead of merely the 40 percent of eligible low-income children currently served.

Pointing to the governor's Committee on Educational Excellence report and the state-commissioned "Getting Down to Facts" studies, we want to ensure that the most important element in student learning - well-prepared and effective teachers - is available to all students, particularly those in the neediest schools. This includes strengthening the teacher preparation pipeline and implementing a fair and robust teacher evaluation system. That system should provide both professional development and support to the vast majority of teachers who want to improve their practice and identify the small percentage who should be counseled out of the profession. Our suit also calls for an adequate data system that would ensure dollars are spent on programs and policies that work.

If the state willingly takes the necessary actions to ensure all California children receive a quality education, we are happy to avoid lengthy litigation. But it's no answer for public officials to say we need "reforms" while refusing to provide enough money to do the job. School funding must be effectively spent, but there also must be more of it. For years Sacramento has nibbled at the edges, rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic but unwilling to support our schools at the level needed for a return to quality. If the state is unwilling to act now, a court order may be our last best hope.

John Affeldt is managing attorney at Public Advocates and a lead counsel for the plaintiffs in CQE v. California. Giselle Quezada is a board member of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, a plaintiff in the suit.

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