Lawsuit Filed

In an era when we see budget woes all around us and certainly we are all aware of how those issues affect our students, our families, and our programs in RUSD, what can we do?  In that regard it has been an interesting week. On Wednesday afternoon there was a demonstration on Olivewood and 14th by CSEA trying to point to the problem and encourage local citizens to be proactive in contacting their legislators to do something to assist our schools and students. That is certainly a move in the right direction.

On Thursday, there were press conferences in both San Francisco and Sacramento announcing a historic class action-style lawsuit (Robles-Wong v. California) against the State of California based on the long-standing inadequacy of funding for California schools. We, as RUSD along with parents and students in the community have joined with PTA, ACSA, and CSBA in filing this suit challenging the constitutionality of the current situation.  The challenge is that the funding process is "irrational, unstable, and insufficient" funding for the 21st century challenges.

There has been news coverage at a local, State, and national level regarding the suit and its relevance.  Clearly, this type of matter is not a quick fix and not a fix for our current budgetary situation -- rather a challenge to the basic system AND an opportunity to fundamentally change the system itself.  The resolution of such a suit will obviously take time (years) but is essential to the long-term health and well-being of California citizens.  Failure to invest in our students is a failure to invest in our future and ourselves.

If you are interested in more detail about the suit -- either now or in the future, you can find the original documents along with much more on the web at:  http://www.fixschoolfinance.org/