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Litigation
Page
Click here for updates on recent litigation
and the status of the adequacy movement |
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Court Enjoins Layoffs at Three Los Angeles
Unified Schools, Upholding Students’
Right to Equal Educational Opportunity Despite
State’s Budget Crisis
Teacher layoffs stemming from state-wide
budget cuts in three Los Angeles middle
schools were enjoined last week by the Superior
Court Judge presiding over Reed
v. State of California, a class-action
lawsuit brought against the state and the
district by students at Gompers, Liechty
and Markham Middle Schools. The Court held
that the seniority-order layoffs implemented
by the Los Angeles Unified School District
(LAUSD) had a disparate negative impact
on students at these schools. Although state
statutes and local collective bargaining
agreements required seniority-order lay-offs,
Judge William F. Highberger held that the
school district “ could not bargain
away students’ constitutional rights.”
Read
Full Story
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| Two
New Education Adequacy Cases in California
The State of California faces
two new legal challenges to its decades-old
school funding scheme. On May 20, 2010,
a coalition including the California School
Boards Association, the California Congress
of Parents, Teachers and Students, the Association
of California School Administrators, several
school districts, and over 60 students and
their families filed a
complaint against the governor and the
state in the Superior Court of Alameda Court.
Additionally, Public Advocates, counsel
for the Campaign for Quality Education,
Californians for Justice (CFJ) and the Alliance
for Californians for Community Empowerment
(ACCE), organizations representing thousands
of low-income students and a number of individual
student plaintiffs, announced their intention
to sue in
a formal demand letter sent to Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger on May 19.
Read
Full Story |
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Education Organizations Sue NY Governor
for Withholding School Aid
On April 22, several major New York state
education organizations filed a
lawsuit in the Supreme Court of Albany
County challenging the constitutionality
and legality of Governor David Paterson’s
decision to withhold $2.1 billion in school
aid for Fiscal Year 2009-10 due to the State’s
cash-shortfall. The funds were scheduled
to be paid by March 31, 2010. Plaintiffs
seek both declaratory relief and school
aid payments. Presciently, plaintiffs also
requested that the Court ensure that payments
are distributed no later than June 1.
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Full Story |
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Study Evaluates Advantages,
Drawbacks of Value-Added Measures
A report released last month by
the National Research Council and the National
Academy of Education cautions policy makers
against hasty adoption of value-added methods
for evaluation of teachers, schools and
students. In “Getting
Value Out of Value-Added,” the
product of the Workshop on Value-Added Methodology
for Instructional Improvement, Program Evaluation,
and Educational Accountability held in November
2008, researchers provide a comprehensive
evaluation of the benefits and drawbacks
of these evaluation systems. The report
warns against using these models alone in
“high-stakes” accountability
assessments.
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Full Story |
| New
Book Calls for New Role for the Courts in
Promoting Social Change
One of the important issues
pursued by political scientists in recent
years, especially in regard to education
finance and education adequacy litigations,
is how and even whether court decisions
actually impact social change. In his new
book, Framing
Equal Educational Opportunity: Law and the
Politics of School Finance Reform,
Michael Paris, who is both a lawyer and
a political scientist, makes an important
contribution to this debate.
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Full Story
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