Historic Lawsuit Challenges California’s Unconstitutional Education Finance System

California School Finance, YubaNet.com May 20, 2010 - A historic lawsuit was filed today against the State of California requesting that the current education finance system be declared unconstitutional and that the state be required to establish a school finance system that provides all students an equal opportunity to meet the academic goals set by the State. The case, Robles-Wong, et al. v. State of California, was filed in the Superior Court of California in Alameda County. Specifically, the suit asks the court to compel the State to align its school finance system-its funding policies and mechanisms-with the educational program that the State has put in place. To do this, plaintiffs allege, the State must scrap its existing finance system; do the work to determine how much it actually costs to fund public education to meet the state's own program requirements and the needs of California's school children; and develop and implement a new finance system consistent with Constitutional requirements…