Public Advocates strongly believes that there should be a state constitutional right to a quality public education. 

In 2016, in a disappointing 4-3 vote for our case, Campaign for Quality Education (CQE) v. State of California, the California Supreme Court essentially stated that there is no state constitutional guarantee of any level of educational quality or minimum funding to support education.

Alongside 22 individual students and parents and 5 grassroots organizations representing nearly 500,000 California families (Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, Californians for Justice, the Campaign for Quality Education, PICO California, and the San Francisco Organizing Project), Public Advocates filed the lawsuit, stating that the State’s failure to adequately and equitably fund its schools so that all students have a reasonable opportunity to obtain a meaningful education that prepares them for college, career, and civic engagement is a violation of their fundamental right to education under the California Constitution’s Education and Equal Protection Clauses. 

We asked the Court to:

1. Declare the current funding system unconstitutional; and
2. Order the State to create a new school funding system aligned with the actual costs of preparing students for civic, economic, and social success, taking into account the learning needs of low-income and English learner students.

In lengthy dissents, Justices Goodwin Liu and Mariano-Florentino Cuellar wrote: 

• “Our state educates one-eighth of all public school students in the country. . . . Many of those kids who come from low-income families find themselves concentrated in particular schools or districts that, despite the best intentions, fail to deliver an education remotely worthy of the students they are serving.” – Mariano-Florentino Cuellar
• “The school children of California deserve to know whether their fundamental right to education is a paper promise or a real guarantee.” – Justices Goodwin Liu

Public Advocates is continuing to pursue our vision for a right to a quality public education in California through our work with the LCFF Equity Coalition.