Education Defunded by the State

When the Legislature and Governor Newsom approved the budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year, they defunded the educations of tens of thousands of California’s schoolchildren, valuing the worth of their educations at ZERO.

These students were new students at school districts and nonprofit public charter schools across California and are entitled to receive public educations at the schools where they chose to enroll. But, instead of funding their educations, the State’s leaders prioritized funding for phantom students – paying institutions with declining enrollment for the students who decided to attend school elsewhere.

Young, Minney & Corr LLP filed two lawsuits to protect the rights of these students and the schools that they attend. In the wake of the first legal challenge, the Legislature took action to restore partial funding to some school districts and charter schools for their planned growth, but the State’s leaders left all charter schools providing virtual and hybrid instruction completely unfunded for their new students. As of today, tens of thousands of students remain stuck on waitlists to attend virtual and hybrid instruction charter schools, pending the restoration of funding for their education. And incredibly, the Governor and Legislature made this choice to withhold funding for their educations at a time when the global pandemic forced all students into distance learning. Yet, it was these very schools that had a demonstrated track record of serving students through distance learning and were capable of serving students well during these challenging times. Denying funding to these schools of the future had nothing to do with doing what was right by California’s students. Instead, the decision by the State’s leaders was carefully calculated to trap students in schools that have failed to provide them with a quality education. It put the interests of adults squarely ahead of the interest of children.

We are pressing on in our fight to ensure that every student’s education in California is fully funded, and to ensure that every student can access the education our State’s constitution guarantees.

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If you are interested in learning more about the lawsuit, you can go to www.FundAllKidsNow.com.  There you can read a copy of the court briefs and see videos of some of the inspiring student plaintiffs in our case.