“We are pleased that we were able to reach an agreement with the state that upholds both the law and the will of the voters when they passed the Proposition 98 minimum funding guarantee for public schools,” said CSBA President Dr. Emma Turner. “At a time when public education is dramatically underfunded, it’s critical that schools — and the students they serve — receive the funding to which they are legally entitled.”
“The settlements are a credit to CSBA’s Education Legal Alliance and reinforce its status as the preeminent legal voice for California’s school districts and county offices of education,” said CSBA CEO & Executive Director Vernon M. Billy. “The advocacy of ELA strengthens California schools and provides essential resources and support for the state’s 6.2 million public school students.”
In CSBA v. Cohen II (2018), CSBA and its ELA filed a lawsuit challenging provisions of Assembly Bill 1825, a 2018–19 budget trailer bill that would have allowed the state to manipulate how the Proposition 98 minimum education funding guarantee is calculated through the “cost-allocation schedule.” As originally written, AB 1825 would have allowed the state to reduce education funding in future years by up to 1 percent of the prior year’s Proposition 98 guarantee — a provision that could have lowered funding by as much as $756 million in a single year.
In CSBA v. Bosler (2018), CSBA and its ELA filed a lawsuit arguing that the state was immediately required to repay prior year underpayments when the state certified Proposition 98 funding from 2009–10 through 2016–17, resulting in $686 million in underpayments to K-12 schools and community colleges. This settlement guarantees full repayment into Proposition 98 in the 2019–20 and 2020–21 budget cycles.