Equal School Funding Pact Upheld

A state appellate court has upheld a landmark settlement in which the Los Angeles Unified School District agreed to overhaul its school funding practices by 1996, equalizing the amount of money given to schools in affluent and poorer neighborhoods.

A group of parents from the Westside had sought to overturn the so-called Rodriguez consent decree settlement through a reverse discrimination-style lawsuit alleging that schools in wealthy neighborhoods would suffer if money was taken from them.

The court ruled, however, that the Westside parents failed to show that the consent decree--approved in 1992 by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge--discriminates against the wealthy. “The only showing is that the LAUSD is trying to make school funding fairer and less discriminatory,” the appellate ruling stated.

Two years ago, the school district agreed to change its policies by allocating the same amount of money to every student.