By David Drucker
Daily Bruin Contributor
The American Civil Liberties Union, utilizing a UCLA School of
Law study, has sued California for failing to provide public school
students with an adequate education.
UCLA Law Professor Gary Blasi examined public schools statewide,
and according to his report released last month, they suffer from a
crumbling infrastructure, too few textbooks and a significant lack
of properly accredited teachers.
Blasi and his research team of 12 law students and faculty also
concluded that California lacks the methods of organizational
accountability needed to properly remedy the problems
uncovered.
“Thus far, people in general have been in favor of holding
students, teachers and parents accountable for test scores,”
Blasi said.
“Our study is about getting students the tools they need
to perform well on those tests,” he added.
Anchoring the ACLU’s legal complaint and the study’s
critique is the claim that the state is ignoring its constitutional
responsibility to ensure all California children equal access to a
basic education.
“The lawsuit has two constitutional bases,” said
ACLU Staff Attorney Catherine Lhamon.
“One involves the constitutional right of every California
child to an education. Second is that the absence of the minimal
conditions which make that education possible denies children their
civil rights.”
California’s public schools have come under intense
scrutiny lately, as well as the issue of who is accountable for
their alleged shortcomings.
While public discussion has focused on teacher effectiveness and
financial resources, a coalition of civil rights groups, including
the Mexican American Defense League, the Asian Pacific American
Legal Center, and the ACLU have joined together, and used the
contents of Blasi’s study to lay the responsibility directly
on the state’s shoulders.
“The lawsuit is challenging how the State has administered
our schools up until now,” said Doug Stone, a spokesman for
the California Department of Education.
Stone could not discuss specifics about the CDE’s position
because the Department was named a co-defendant in the lawsuit
along with the State, the State Board of Education, and State
Superintendent of Public Instruction, Delaine Eastin.
“The lawsuit is asking the state to intercede into areas
that we previously haven’t been involved in,” Stone
said.
But according to Blasi’s study, the state’s lack of
involvement is indicative of the problem: “Most surprising to
us were the results of our investigation of the system of
accountability that govern all public schools, good and bad,”
said the study in its Executive Summary.
“What we found was a patchwork of rules and regulations, a
patchwork comprised almost entirely of holes,” the study
continued.
The study goes on to explain that “no one” is held
accountable for the fact that students attend schools characterized
by “slum conditions,” including the lack of heat in the
winter, air conditioning in the summer, non-functioning toilets,
and leaky roofs, to name a few.
“There’s a tremendous amount of literature relating
to the significance of temperature in a classroom and
education,” Blasi said.
“Once outside the range of 68 to 80 degrees, (temperature)
has a negative effect on grades,” he added.
Blasi commented that reasons for the dysfunction varied from
district to district, but noted that “by and large, the State
lacks money.”
He mentioned, though, that some apparently well-run districts
actually suffered from the same poor conditions as the ones where
the problems were more obvious.
But Lhamon had a slightly different view.
“I think that the lack of management may be more
significant than the lack of funds,” she said.
Stating one of the objectives of the lawsuit, Lhamon added,
“We want the State to set up a system of accountability so
that when problems occur, parents and students will be able to get
them remedied in the short term.”
Blasi also underscored the state’s importance in this
system of accountability.
“I think accountability is a good idea, but it means
holding everybody accountable for the role they play in the
system.”