The Tragedy of Education Inequity in California

BY DOROTHY EHRLICH
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
ACLU OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

The mother of one of the students in an ACLU lawsuit broke down in tears as she tried to describe how desperately inadequate the resources were at her 8-year old daughter's Bay Area elementary school.

She described a school where students can't possibly learn and teachers can't possibly teach. Unfortunately, the conditions at her daughter's school mirror the conditions in at least 18 others schools, in an historic class action lawsuit recently filed in the San Francisco Superior Court.

The lawsuit, brought by 60 California public school students, is the most sweeping case ever brought concerning bare minimum necessities required for an education. It charges the state of California with reneging on its constitutional duty to provide the basics for an adequate education and it insists that the state develop a mechanism to hold schools accountable for ensuring that children receive the basic tools for learning.

Thousands of California public school children are suffering under learning conditions that were appalling and unacceptable in the 19th Century. Today children spend their days in classrooms infested by cockroaches, rats and mice; where the toilets back up and the facets don't work, where the lack of ventilation leaves children in a constant sweat in temperatures of 90 degrees and above, or with a chill so persistent that they have to wear coats, hats and gloves in the classroom? These are schools where children share outdated textbooks — where the geography text still describes a country known as the Soviet Union. Schools where as few as 13% of the teachers have full teaching credentials, where there are no homework assignments because there's no paper to print them on, and not enough books for children to bring home.

At a time of unprecedented wealth and opportunity in this state, there are thousands of children who attend public schools that are so grossly inferior that the conditions simply shock the conscience. The children who attend these schools are overwhelmingly poor and children of color, and they are constantly being told by the conditions they are forced to endure that they have no value.

As yet another school year draws to a close, there is little room for congratulations, as thousands of children with the hopes and dreams of careers and college have those dreams crushed by schools that deny them educational opportunities. This lawsuit is a first step towards allowing all school children in California to have a chance to reclaim those dreams.

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