Several years ago I met a person who, after two years of legal wrangling, won a judgement against the local school district. He and his wife were going to have their child sent to a non-pubic school and the cost would be paid by the public school district. In addition to the tuition which was $60,000.00 annually, the school would also have to pay the cost of transportation which was an additional $125.00 per week. That's a lot of money.
At this same time, there was a group of parents attempting to file a class action lawsuit against the Morgan Hill Unified School District. About two or three parents got together and started trying to recruit others to join in their complaint. They had an attorney and they were "passing the hat" to pay his retainer. I can't really recall what the complaint was about but I know I didn't want to be part of it. The problem with lawsuits is the courts have no sense of urgency and all of our issues are time sensitive. You can start legal proceedings for your fifth grader and by the time you get to court he/she is about to enter the eighth grade. You're much better off going to the Department of Education and filing your complaint there.
I started thinking, if this one parent won a judgement and the cost to the school district is almost $65,000.00 annually, what happens if a big class action suit with several parents resulted in a judgement against the school district? We all know where that money comes from; that's our kids art, P.E.and music classes. The school districts don't have a "slush fund" for law suits so it has to come from the general fund, right? People don't think about this but it has a huge affect on our school budgets. Special Education Litigation is one of the fastest growing practices in the field of law...Makes sense, autism is the fastest growing disability facing our educational system. So, what's the cost to our public schools in California? It's a good question and one I have yet to find an answer to.
Two years ago, I went to a workshop and one of the speakers was an attorney from a law office on the peninsula. She was introduced as a leading expert in the "emerging" field of Special Education Law. Her law firm had billed the Ravenswood School District $2.1 million dollars for services rendered over the past fiscal year. First of all, I wouldn't have bragged on that fact. Secondly, $2.1 million is what was billed to the school district. They didn't mention what the district suffered in losses.
How many school districts are there in the state of California? If that is what one school district paid in one year, what would the total cost be to our education system state wide? A hundred million? A billion? $2 billion? Believe it or not, no one knows what the annual cost of litigation to our educational system might be.
I started asking this question two years ago and I still don't have an answer. I've talked with three members of our state assembly, more than once I might add. I've talked with my state congress person, I've written the California Department of Education. I've written the State Superintendent of Schools. I've written the Governator. I've written the Santa Clara County Office of Education. I've written the County SELPAs. No one knows and no one even keeps track of this information. I don't think anyone wants to know the answer to this question. How can we talk about educational reform when we are not tracking information that has such a huge impact on our bottom line? It's like spending ten billion dollars a month and not including it in your budget...oops!
I've heard the cries from the GOP for the teachers union to give more concessions. However, there are to many holes in the boat to believe that the key to the problems facing our schools is just concessions from the teacher's union.
This might anger a few people but it's the Socialist in me; If everyone in the state of California paid an extra $200.00 per year in taxes we wouldn't have a shortage of teachers, equipment, resources or transportation in our public schools...That includes the CSU and UC Systems.
No comments:
Post a Comment