People for Student Rights is the start of a grassroots coalition of parents and tax payers that want to improve the quality of public education for students. The goal is to expose California's new education funding law AB- 97 School Finance - Local Control Funding Formula, and the unforeseen consequences of the law, which have resulted in substantial harm to students and taxpayers.

In California, every student has a fundamental right to the equal opportunity to learn and succeed in school. That right belongs to every student, irrespective of their individual wealth, race or ethnicity. The courts have defined equal opportunity to achieve a quality education as sufficient funding to provide every student with the opportunity to obtain high quality staff, program expansion and variety, beneficial teacher-pupil ratios and class sizes, modern equipment and materials, and high-quality buildings."

The new law promises to restore K-12 funding to 2007-08 levels + inflation by the year 2021. 2007-08 levels of funding are not sufficient to provide students with a quality education in the year 2015, and certainly will not be sufficient in 2021. The State of California is currently enjoying the greatest tax revenue in its history at $117,445 billion dollars. In 2007-08 tax revenues were $105,361 billion. The State of California is knowingly and intentionally underfunding K-12 public education so that "surplus" revenue can be spent on new programs and entitlements that are not constitutionally mandated.

Article XVI, §8 of the California Constitution

The California Constitution gives education funding a unique priority above all other state funding obligations by requiring that:

"... from all state revenues there shall first be set apart the monies to be applied by the State for support of the public school system..." [Cal. Const. art. XVI, §8.] (emphasis added)

If the State of California wants to shift spending priorities from public education to the other priorities such a CARB (California Air Resource Board) and High Speed Rail, then the State needs to change it's Constitution. The State is not entitled to deprive any student of their Constitutional right to a free and equal opportunity to achieve a quality education to pay for any other cost not mandated by the California Constitution. The State intentionally designed the new education funding law to underfund districts with a low percentage of students who are English Language Learners, Receiving Free and Reduced Lunch or are in Foster Care; and is in fact, using the State's education funding system to promote a political agenda and to redistribute wealth rather than educate students.

The continued lack of adequate funding is resulting in a noticeable decline in academic performance of all students, across all demographics. Unless we, "the People", can change the way the State of California chooses to raise and disburse local tax revenues, all students in California will continue to be denied their fundamental right to a quality education. The answer is not MORE taxes, the answer is changing the way California spends the People's money.

The State of California educates 1 in 8 students in the United States. California's failure to educate its students will greatly impact how educated our nation is as a whole, and how well prepared the Nation will be to compete with it's peers around the world in the future,

We need to make sure our students have an opportunity to achieve their academic potential... that is the constitutionally mandated spending priority of the State of California.

What you can do to help?

#1 Press - WE NEED TO GET THIS INFORMATION OUT!

Please share this information with friends and the Press. If you have any media contacts - please try and get the media to start covering the issues highlighted by People for Student Rights. The National adoption of Common Core and California's new Local Control Funding Formula should be the center of Education discussions in the Presidential campaigns. This web site contains very detailed, verifiable information on how the new law affects students in the Capistrano Unified School District in Orange County, CA. The issues highlighted on this web site are applicable to other districts all over the State. People for Student Rights has done the heavy lifting to outline a road map to successfully changing how California chooses to raise and disburse local tax revenues. If successful, we CAN change California so that our children will have a better future.

#2 Professional Translation

This web site needs to be a muti-lingual web site so that the the information is available to all.

#3 Help Verify Information and Add to this Complaint.

If you are a taxpayer, or a parent of a student and want to make a difference for students let us know if we need to add or correct anything contained in the draft complaint. If you have a group or coalition already working on issues like Mello-roos, Residency Verification, Impaction issues at school sites, Charter Schools, starting your own district etc- you are invited to join this web site by placing your information here as well. The Capistrano Unified School District has many old schools that, due to a lack of funding have not been adequately maintained since 2006. Let us know what your school needs. Many of our schools are impacted. We need additional classrooms and more teachers to reduce class sizes. If your child is in an overcrowded classroom please share your story on our blog. Let our Legislators see the deplorable conditions they have created for students and let them know we The People will not stand for any Government that seeks to limit the academic potential of our children.

#4 Advocacy Organizations and Public Policy Institutes

This case is much bigger than a single parent - it is so sad in this day and age, that it is no longer politically correct to represent students, (irrespective of their individual wealth, race or ethnicity) who happen to live in what is perceived to be a "wealthy area". I invite any political advocacy group (including the ACLU) to read the facts contained in this complaint, and tell our children they are not entitled to the same constitutional protection as their peers living in other areas, simply because of where they happen to live. The laws of the land are suppose to be applied equally to all and should never be used to punish an identified group based on wealth, race or ethnicity. Such invidious discrimination is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution and Article I § 7 and Article 4 § 16 of the California Constitution, commonly known as the equal protection laws of California's Constitution.

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