Hello Books, Goodbye Rats

The California Constitution guarantees all students a free and equal education, but in practice some get good schooling and others get weak principals, inept teachers, missing textbooks, filthy restrooms and rat infestations.

The American Civil Liberties Union thinks the state is responsible and last year filed a suit on behalf of 18 schools demanding better staffs and conditions. This week a Superior Court judge allowed the plaintiffs to expand that suit to include every student in every substandard public school in California.

That broadening of the suit makes it even more critical that this battle--which includes countersuits filed by the state against the school districts charging that they are responsible for the problems--be settled swiftly. The alternative is a prolonged and expensive fight that pits school reform allies against each other and distracts from what everyone agrees is the real task at hand: assuring kids the good education they deserve.

Even before the suit was filed there was progress. Under former Gov. Pete Wilson the state raised academic standards, reduced class sizes in the early grades, required students to take a standardized test to chart progress, expanded teacher training, banned social promotion and paid for new textbooks. Since Gov. Gray Davis took office, K-12 funding has risen by $9.1 billion, or nearly 30%. The governor is signing bills this month that will strengthen principals, expand teacher training and help to increase the pass rate on California’s new high school exit exam. Rising test scores indicate that more students, especially those in elementary school, are making rapid and significant progress. Yet many flounder far below grade level. It is these children, largely poor minority students stuffed into substandard schools and often taught by inexperienced or unqualified teachers, that the ACLU suit intends to help.

The governor can’t direct school custodians to keep the restrooms clean or order the best teachers to flock to the worst campuses. But he can direct the outside lawyers who represent the state to settle the ACLU suit.

The state hired O’Melveny & Myers, the prominent Los Angeles law firm, because the state attorney general couldn’t take the case. Recognize the O’Melveny name? That’s the same firm that provided questionable advice on the Belmont Learning Complex deal to the Los Angeles Unified School District. The courts find no conflict in the firm taking this case, but O’Melveny might have let a bit more time pass before going up against a familiar former client, the schools, on behalf of a new one, the state. All at public expense.

The accountability the ACLU lawsuit demands should apply to every one of the billions of dollars the state sends school districts. With the right settlement, California would be required to set a standard for public schools and to intervene promptly and forcefully when it is not met.

Only when that happens will the most disadvantaged students be able to say, “Hello textbooks, goodbye rats.”