EdSource reporter John Fensterwald writes that the CA Dept of Education is sticking with its ruling that LAUSD underspent, by hundreds of millions of dollars, money it should have used to increase and improve services for high-need students. He quotes Public Advocates’ Rigel Massaro…
By John Fensterwald
August 8, 2016
The California Department of Education is sticking with its ruling in May that Los Angeles Unified has underspent, by hundreds of millions of dollars, money it should have used to increase and improve services for high-needs children under the state’s new school funding law. In reaffirming its decision, the department gives the district until the 2017-18 school year to comply.
The ruling, released Friday, is likely to lead to the first major lawsuit challenging a district’s spending obligations under the Local Control Funding Formula, since Los Angeles Unified remains fundamentally at odds with the department on the issue. The ACLU of California and the nonprofit law firm Public Advocates, which filed the complaint challenging the district’s position, expressed satisfaction with the ruling in a statement Monday but displeasure with the delay in enforcing it. “It is not within the State Superintendent’s authority to allow (L.A. Unified) to continue violating the law,” said Rigel Massaro, attorney with Public Advocates.
Read the entire story here.
