Calif. Schools Chief, Teachers’ Union Sue Governor Over Funding

California state schools Superintendent Jack O’Connell and the California Teachers Association took their battle with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger over the state budget to the next level Aug. 8 by filing a lawsuit that charges the governor with failing to provide schools with money they are guaranteed under state law.

Filed in superior court in Sacramento, the lawsuit asks that Mr. Schwarzenegger come up with $3.1 billion. That sum, Mr. O’Connell said in a press release, “would enable us to keep 100 schools open that are slated to be closed, to save class-size reduction in all K-3 programs, and to extend that program to the 4th grade.”

The lawsuit refers to a deal made between the governor and education groups in January 2004, in which he borrowed $2 billion from the state’s Proposition 98 education funding formula to help balance the budget until California’s economy improved. Because the budget for the current fiscal year, 2005-06, which began in July, was calculated based on that lower level of funding as well, the amount the state now owes schools for two years has reached $3.1 billion,...