Brown Bag Seminar: From the Courtroom to the Classroom: Seeking Educational Finance Reform in California

In 1973, the landmark lawsuit, Serrano v. Priest, established that education is a fundamental right enjoyed by all California schoolchildren and that California’s educational finance system denied equal protection of the law to children in low-income school districts. That decision resulted in a significant overhaul of California’s school finance system that was aimed at equalizing school district spending and centralizing much school funding at the state level. Forty years later, it is difficult to deny that California’s school finance system is again in need of overhaul. From the pathbreaking Getting Down to Facts studies to the report of the Governor’s Committee on Education Excellence, nearly all serious observers recognize that California’s public school finance system is broken and insufficient to meet the needs of the state’s diverse student body.

In this discussion, Professor William Koski will discuss the potential role of the judiciary in reforming California’s educational finance system specifically and recent educational resource litigation more generally. Koski is co-counsel for more than 60 schoolchildren in the Robles-Wong v. California litigation in which a coalition of school districts, the California School Boards Association, the Association of California School Administrators, the California Teachers Association and the state PTA are seeking to have the state educational finance system declared unconstitutional on the grounds that it fails to ensure that children’s fundamental right to an education is delivered. Koski will discuss that lawsuit, situate it within the national “adequacy” finance litigation movement, and  consider the evolving role of state courts in educational governance and finance reform.

William Koski is the Eric and Nancy Wright Professor of Clinical Education and Professor of Education (by courtesy). An accomplished clinical teacher and litigator, Koski is the founder and director of the Stanford Law School’s Youth and Education Law Project (YELP). He and the students in the law project have represented hundreds of disadvantaged children and their families in educational equity, disability rights, and school reform matters. Koski and YELP are currently representing more than 60 students from across California in the pathbreaking Robles-Wong v. California lawsuit. Koski’s scholarly work focuses on educational accountability, equity, and adequacy; the politics of educational policy reform; and judicial decision making in educational policy reform litigation. Read more>>