School districts sue over state's failure to pay for mandates

Several school districts and a statewide association representing them sued the state on Wednesday for nearly $1 billion the districts say they are owed for programs the state forces them to offer but hasn't paid for.

The lawsuit, filed in San Diego County Superior Court, challenges the state's authority to defer payments for the 38 mandatory programs, which the districts say the state has done by failing to include full funding for them in the last five state budgets.

The California School Boards Association argues in its lawsuit that the state is constitutionally obligated to pay the full cost of programs it forces local governments, including school districts, to run. This year, as in previous years, the governor budgeted just $38,000, or $1,000 per program for those school mandates.

The lack of funding “forces school districts to divert their limited discretionary revenues from the core educational program and use those revenues to accommodate an increasing number of state mandates,” the lawsuit said.

Among the mandates are pupil health screenings, which CSBA estimates cost districts nearly $4 million a year; meeting the state's graduation requirements, at a cost of nearly $66 million a year; and reporting attendance figures, which cost districts about $3.8 million a year.

Richard Hamilton, director of CSBA's Educational Legal Alliance, which filed the suit, said the state owes school districts $415 million for programs it underfunded and $475 million for programs it never funded, as well as another $160 million to run the programs this year.

Administration spokesman Bill Maile said the state Department of Finance had not yet seen the lawsuit, and could not immediately comment. Still, he said, the state is meeting its obligation to schools.

“K-12 has, and will continue to receive, the lion's share of budget dollars, even with the fiscal challenges we face,” Maile said.

Last week, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office forecast a $10 billion state budget shortfall over the next two years, which could force deep cuts in spending.

The LAO has referred to the underfunding of state education mandates as “credit card debt” and has urged the state to repay it, according to the lawsuit.

Because voters limited the ability of local governments to collect new tax revenues when they approved property tax-slashing Proposition 13 in 1978, they also later made it a constitutional requirement that the state reimburse local governments whenever it mandates a new program or a higher level of service.

The state repaid about $900 million in accumulated debt and costs for school mandates in the 2006-07 budget, but it failed to pay off the entire debt and didn't fully pay for this year's programs, CSBA said.

“The state expects schools to foot the bill for millions of dollars in mandated costs that they do not fund and rarely pay back,” CSBA president Kathy Kinley said in a statement.

The San Diego County Office of Education, Riverside Unified School District, San Jose Unified School District and Clovis Unified School District also were named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

The case is California School Boards Association Educational Legal Alliance et al v. State of California.