State Ordered to Pay Long Beach Schools for Desegregation Effort

The state was ordered Tuesday to pay up to $35 million to the Long Beach Unified School District for money spent on voluntary desegregation efforts from 1977 to 1984, a ruling that could affect dozens of school districts around California.

The order by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert I. Weil followed more than five years of efforts by the Long Beach district to recover the expenses of its desegregation program, which began in 1972. The district tried to collect only for the period beginning in 1977 when a state law was enacted requiring school desegregation.

“This is a landmark decision, because it recognizes the obligation of the state to pay for the programs it mandates,” Anthony Murray, an attorney representing the district, said in a statement.

According to Allan Tebbetts, another attorney for the district, there may be 20 to 30 other California school districts in the same situation as Long Beach, although he said he is not aware that any other lawsuits have been filed. About 34 districts statewide have claimed that they are entitled to repayment dating back to 1977-78.

The state Board of Control sided with Long Beach in 1982. Three years later, legislation signed by Gov. George Deukmejian reimbursed Long Beach and five other districts more than $8 million in voluntary desegregation costs incurred during the 1984-85 school year. The bill also required the state to cover a portion of their costs in following years but no more than an amount equal to 80% of the districts’ 1984-85 claim. The repayment was to be increased annually with cost-of-living adjustments.

But Long Beach sued anyway in 1986. The district considered the state’s repayment agreement insufficient because it did not cover the entire costs of its desegregation effort.

The other districts included in the 1985 legislation were Santa Monica-Malibu, Sweetwater in San Diego County, Pasadena, ABC (Artesia-Bellflower-Cerritos) and Fresno.

In presenting its arguments, the district relied heavily on the precedent set by a case last year in which a group of firefighters in Carmel Valley won a decision forcing the state to reimburse them for the cost of safety equipment required by the state.

“I feel very good about this decision,” Tebbetts said. “It seems we’ve finally established that if the state requires you to perform services above your duties as a school district that you can recover the costs of your expenses.”

Suit Names Others

In addition to the state, the Long Beach district’s lawsuit named as defendants the Commission on State Mandates, the state Department of Education, the state controller, state treasurer and the state director of finance.

The decision is expected to be appealed.

One of the district’s main arguments, its lawyers said, was that school districts under court order to comply with the state desegregation laws were able to receive reimbursement while those, such as Long Beach that had complied voluntarily, were not eligible.

“It just doesn’t make any sense to penalize those who obey the law and reward others who don’t,” said district spokesman Richard Van der Laan.

The state was ordered to pay $28 million which, with interest, would come to about $35 million, he said. The money will be used to finance magnet schools, demographic studies and busing.