California
Advocates Mount Statewide Campaign; While School Funding Litigation and Costing
Out Process Underway While attorneys are preparing
for trial in California's school funding case, Williams
v. State, and the State is moving slowly on development of a Quality Education
Model (QEM) to determine the cost of providing students with an adequate education,
the grassroots advocacy Campaign
for Quality Education is garnering statewide attention and bringing many high
school students themselves into the forefront of efforts to improve schools and
ensure a quality education for all students. Recently, as one step in a
long-range campaign for better schools, a coalition of education advocacy organizations
won a two-year delay in the effective date of the state's high school exit exam,
based on evidence that many low-income and minority students do not have the opportunity
to learn the material tested. As reported in the San
Jose Mercury News, hundreds of demonstrators from across the state traveled
to the State Board of Education meeting in Sacramento where the vote to delay
was unanimous. Twenty students spoke to the Board on behalf of Californians
for Justice about the lack of qualified teachers and text books and other
shortcomings in their schools. Only 60% of the students in the class of 2004,
the first class originally scheduled to need the exam for graduation, had passed
the test. Williams v. State and QEM The Williams
plaintiffs seek a court decision requiring the State to provide certain basic
educational resources, including quality teaching, to all students. The State
has indicated that it will argue that equal educational benefits would actually
harm low-income students. The trial is scheduled
to begin in August 2004. After next week's inauguration, California's new
governor will inherit a QEM Commission that is
behind schedule, but holds significant potential for assessing the needs and related
"costs that are necessary to provide the opportunity for a quality education to
every pupil." The Commission must issue a report of its findings one year after
it actually convenes. Prepared November 14, 2003 | 
