The state of California was hit by different groups who have filed lawsuits pertaining to cuts in the spending bill that was passed by Governor Jerry Brown this year.
The California School Board Association, the Association of California School Administrators and three school districts representing the areas of San Francisco, Los Angeles and Turlock, have filed a $2.1 billion lawsuit against the state.
This action is in response to their claim that they were denied funding in the recently passed budget reserved for them via Proposition 98. The proposition states that funding for public education should make up at least 40 percent of the budget.
Post-budget legal battles are nothing new for California.
During the latter part of former Governor Schwarzenegger’s time in office, austerity measures such as borrowing money from California’s municipalities and counties to plug holes in the state budget were contested in court.
California’s public schools are struggling to balance the cost of educating an ever expanding student body as well as the need to pay generous salaries, benefits and pensions to tenured teachers due to contracts signed in more prosperous times.
In a period of declining local revenues to support K-12 public education, local school districts have become increasingly dependent on additional revenues injected annually by the state.
“We were really terribly underfunded before the recession began three years ago,” said Bob Wells, executive director of the Association of California School Administrators. “There just has to be a stop to those sorts of cuts.”
San Francisco Superintendent Carlos Garcia stated, “We decided to join this lawsuit because we can no longer just sit idly by and patiently watch as the state shortchanges future generations of students. School districts across this wonderful state have trimmed everything, and we’re saying, ‘We’re not going to put up with this anymore, we’re going to stand up for ourselves.’”
This is not the only lawsuit that the state is facing.
A $100 million lawsuit filed by disability advocate groups such as Arc California has been filed over cuts in aid to such advocacy groups.
Arc California in particular has been hits by cuts of at least 4.5 percent since 2003, which has affected the organization and its ability to provide care to the disabled.
Tony Anderson, executive director of the Arc of California, stated “In our view, it’s just gotten worse and there’s no other alternative for us.”
The League of California Cities is also filing a lawsuit challenging a $130 million shift of vehicle license fees toward a prison initiative created by the Governor.
Despite the number of lawsuits, the state believes that none of the cuts were wrong.
H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the Department of Finance, stated “We believe the courts will find that the action the Legislature took in this matter is legal and appropriate.”
The lawsuits come at a time when California is going through a major financial crisis.
If the lawsuits go through and the original cuts are reversed, triggers in the budget would mandate cuts in other aspects, including libraries, civil services and even to universities and colleges, which could leave California in an even worse financial situation than before.