SEIU Local 99 Sues Governor Schwarzenegger

After the Governor threatened to cut another $3.6 billion from our kids' classrooms, SEIU Local 99 and the California Federation of Teachers filed a lawsuit to force the state to repay schools almost $12 billion in funding required under voter-approved Proposition 98. Going to court to protect school funding is a better option than passing Prop. 1A and Prop. 1B on the May 19 ballot. Prop. 1A would do long term damage to our schools, locking in large class sizes and leaving California 47th in spending per pupil with no hope of improvement.

"Voters need to know that we don't have to lock flawed and dangerous formulas into the constitution in order to repay our schools. Prop. 1A will turn the Prop. 98 minimum funding guarantee for our schools into a cap instead of a floor, and Prop. 1B could mean that schools won't even get all the money they are owed if more cuts happen in the coming year," said Marty Hittleman, President of the California Federation of Teachers. "This lawsuit will fund schools at the level required by law to reflect the voice of the voters who made our children's education a clear constitutional priority through Prop. 98."

Prop. 1B would give schools the repayment Prop. 98 requires only if voters also approve Prop. 1A, and, unlike the lawsuit, Prop. 1B would not guarantee that any additional education cuts made for the 2009-10 year would have to be repaid under Prop. 98.

Under Prop 98, if schools receive less state funding than what is required by Prop. 98's minimum guarantee, they must be repaid a "maintenance factor" in subsequent years. Because the legislature "suspended" Prop. 98 in the 2007-08 and 2008-09 fiscal years to make more wiggle room in the budget, schools will be owed a total of $9.3 billion in back payments, a level that could reach $12 billion if an additional $2.3 billion in cuts are made in FY 2009-10 as projected in February's state budget agreement. Governor Schwarzenegger has recently threatened to increase 09-10 school cuts to $3.6 billion. Prop. 1B would restore only $9.3 billion in cuts, and then only if formulas that would cause serious long-term damage to education are cemented in the constitution with Prop. 1A.

"Knowing they had no legal argument to justify withholding at least $9.3 billion from our schools, the Governor and legislators put Prop 1B on the ballot to make a political tradeoff in the hopes of passing Prop. 1A which would permanently lock education into bottom of the barrel formulas and result in thousands of layoffs to pay for the so-called 'Rainy Day" Fund," said Bill Lloyd, Executive Director of SEIU Local 99.