127 School Districts Sue State for More Equitable Funding : Courts: Case filed in Santa Ana seeks to have education funding methods declared illegal.

Teaming up in a bid to reform California’s school funding system, 127 school districts sued the state Wednesday, demanding more money for education and more equitable distribution of the funds.

The lawsuit, filed in Orange County Superior Court here, asks a judge to declare the state’s funding methods illegal on the grounds that they do not provide an adequate education and because not all districts receive the same amount to spend on their students. Eight Orange County districts are among the plaintiffs.

The state Department of Education defended the system. Joseph R. Symkowick, the department’s general counsel, said the state, wrestling with a huge budget deficit in a recession-torn economy, has only three options if it is to seek more funds for education, and all would prove unpopular.

“You can take from richer (school) districts and give to poorer, you can raise taxes or you can revise the state budget to take money from other state programs,” Symkowick said.

He added that the state has done a good job of equalizing funding among districts.

As of 1983, he said, at least 93% of the school districts in California fell within the range specified by a judge who had presided over the funding-inequity dispute. That ruling requires disparities between districts to be limited to $100 per pupil.

Attorney John McDermott, who is representing the school districts, said he hoped the case would go to trial in about a year.