CA - Negotiations underway to settle lawsuit over school inequities
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration and lawyers for public school children are in talks to settle a class-action lawsuit that could mean setting aside $138 million for low-performing schools in this year's budget. The lawsuit alleges that the districts fell short in several areas, including: schools that are overcrowded and in deplorable condition, with leaky roofs, poor plumbing, rodent and insect infestations, insufficient or out-of-date textbooks, large numbers of uncredentialed teachers or high turnover of teachers. "There were decades of neglect," said Mark Rosenbaum, an ACLU attorney involved with the lawsuit. "These were schools in name only." [more]