An article the other day in the San Diego Union-Tribune highlighted
an issue that all taxpayers should be concerned with: school districts
and legal fees. The article showed how Sweetwater Union
High School District spends approximately three times what its peer school
districts pay for legal fees.
Sweetwater has an
enrollment of roughly 42,000 students. The school district is paying an
astonishing $1.4 million a year for legal counsel. Compared to the five peer
districts, Sweetwater’s legal costs are almost three times higher!
Unsurprisingly, legal costs also represented a greater portion of
Sweetwater’s budget than the peer districts.
Sweetwater is just one
example of a district facing out-of-control legal costs. We have more than
1,000 school districts in this state, and sadly, Sweetwater’s situation is far
from unique. In 2010, CALA published a report titled Lessons in Lawsuits,
which examined the legal costs of 12 school districts in California. Those 12
districts spent close to $100 million over three years.
With teachers being laid
off, schools closing and parents worrying about the dropping quality of public
education, we need to take a look at how the outrageous legal climate in this
state is affecting education and see if there are ways to cut these costs.
Unfortunately, many
Californians do not realize what is being lost to lawsuits and litigation in
their communities. Due to our state’s lawsuit-friendly legal climate, there
truly is not an issue or entity that is not affected by the threat of lawsuits.
The example of the legal costs in Sweetwater Union High School District should
send a clear message to parents that our state’s legal climate is so bad, it
even affects their children’s education.