Orange : Colleges Keep Control of Adult Education
A Superior Court judge in Los Angeles on Thursday rejected a lawsuit filed by the Orange Unified School District, which sought to wrest control of adult-education classes from the Rancho Santiago College District.
Judge Joseph Kalin’s decision on the suit was greeted with relief by officials at Rancho Santiago, which has been providing adult-education classes on behalf of Orange Unified for 23 years.
The financial stakes were high. If the program had been transferred to Orange Unified, Rancho Santiago would have lost more than $3 million a year in state funds for the approximately 15,000 adults it serves in Orange.
Beyond that, Richard Currier, lawyer for Rancho Santiago, said that if other school districts were able to take over college-sponsored adult-education classes, the statewide community colleges system could have lost up to $122 million a year in state funding.
He said Kalin rejected the school district’s argument that, under the state education code, school districts have primary responsibility for adult education.
Instead, the judge found that while high schools have the right to offer adult-education programs, they do not have “the sole authority or the exclusive jurisdiction,” said Currier.
Orange Unified School District officials could not be reached Thursday afternoon for comment.
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