The California School Board Association — or CSBA — plans to file the second lawsuit this year against the state for withheld funds.
The filing is expected to strengthen a similar case brought last week by the California Teachers Association.
The lawsuits are the result of overly optimistic revenue projections. The state overestimated how much money it would have for education, but schools are still legally entitled to that full amount.
But the state said there are reasons their estimates have been way off.
“One's the Iran war and what that's doing with energy prices and inflation,” said H.D. Palmer, deputy director of external affairs for the Department of Finance. “And two, what has been going on with the federal government's tariff policy, which has an outside effect on an export state like California.”
Despite that, he said teachers don’t need to worry.
“The state's already demonstrated its commitment to paying that amount as promised,” said Palmer. “We did it this year, and we fully intend to do it next year.”
But that’s only if state revenues come through as planned. Educators worry that won’t happen. David Goldberg, president of the CTA, says there’s no guaranteed timeline.
“If you do this every year, year after year,” said Goldberg, “then you're always going to be behind in your payments.”
He says the instability has caused layoffs and some of the largest class sizes in the country.
According to Jaime Huling, vice president of San Francisco Unified’s school board, the district was short $24 million this year because of the state’s withholding. That comes out to roughly one less educator at every school.
“Even if that does get paid back eventually, those are teachers and paras and social workers and security guards that we can't hire this year who aren't serving students who need to learn this year,” said Huling.
Huling said it’s a big deal to see the School Board Association and the CTA on the same side — school boards usually negotiate against teachers unions.
