Suit Would Overhaul Calif. School Finance System

Carl Barnes, right, father of plaintiffs Kibew Diop, 10, bottom center, and Lumumba Diop speaks about the Robles-Wong v. California lawsuit at a news conference on May 20 at A.P. Giannini Middle School in San Francisco, Calif.

—Jeff Chiu/AP

By Lesli A. Maxwell

In what could become the most important school finance litigation in 40 years in California, parents, students, school leaders, and education advocates sued the state Thursday, claiming the way it finances public schools violates the state constitution.

The plaintiffs—including nine school districts and 60 students and their families—argue that although the state prescribes what teachers must teach and what students must learn, it does not provide the resources to deliver on those requirements. They are asking the courts to order the governor and the state legislature to scrap the current finance system and design a new one that is “sound, stable, and sufficient.”

“This lawsuit is the last resort,” said Frank Pugh, the president of the California School Boards Association, one of the plaintiffs. “The governor and the legislature, and I mean both sides of the aisle, have known for some time that the current school finance system is harming students, and yet they’ve done nothing...