“The evidence…shocks the conscience.”
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu’s ruling in Vergara v. California, the 2014 California lawsuit which exposed the inequality of students’ experiences in the California public school system.
Students Matter is on a mission to fix California’s unequal education system that undervalues students.
Students Matter, Kids First, and a coalition of parents, teachers, and community advocates have put forth a ballot measure that would amend the California Constitution: High-Quality Public Education (HQPE). This measure would establish high-quality public education as a civil right for all students.
Vergara v. California is only one chapter in our story.
In Vergara, Judge Rolf Treu ruled that all of the statutes challenged by the student plaintiffs created bad outcomes for children and were unconstitutional, but a three-judge panel on the Court of Appeal reversed the trial court's decision. The Court of Appeal did not challenge the facts but instead stated that the children did not have a constitutional right to an adequate education. Thus, they held that the challenged statutes did not violate the California Constitution and overturned Judge Rolf Treu’s decision.
In summary: Because there is no right to quality education, the State has no legal right to provide one.
As a founding member of Kids First, we are part of a coalition proposing a ballot measure in 2024 to fundamentally change California’s broken education system and finally put our students first.
Important Cases that Led to Vergara and now Kids First
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
The federal Supreme Court's opinion in the Brown v. Board of Education case of 1954 legally ended decades of racial segregation in America's public schools.
Learn more about the case at National Archives
The children involved in the landmark Civil Rights lawsuit 'Brown V. Board of Education,' which challenged the legality of American public school segregation, Topeka, Kansas, 1953.
“[Education]... is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.”
— Chief Justice Earl Warren, Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Chief Justice Thurgood Marshall who wrote the dissenting opinion in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (1973)
San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (1973)
“This decision held that inequities in school funding do not violate the Constitution. The court thus said that discrimination against the poor does not violate the Constitution and that education is not a fundamental right. It played a major role in creating the separate and unequal schools that exist today.” Source: Time Magazine, The Worst Supreme Court Decisions Since 1960
“[C]ountless children unjustifiably receive inferior educations that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.”
— Chief Justice Thurgood Marshall, Dissenting Opinion San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (1973)
California Supreme Court Cases Serrano v. Priest I (1971) and Serrano v. Priest II (1976)
In the 1970s, the California Supreme Court heard cases against using property taxes as the principal source of revenue for public schools. The argument was that children in poorer districts attended schools that did not receive the same educational expenditures, thus their schools were under-resourced and did not provide the same level of education. The court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, declaring the California public school financing system to be unconstitutional.
The plaintiffs in Serrano v. Priest
“While these cases addressed the issue of a lack of equality of educational opportunity . . . here this Court is directly faced with issues that compel it to apply these constitutional principles to the quality of the educational experience."
— Excerpt from the Vergara opening arguments
Vergara v. California
In order to strike down the laws handcuffing schools from doing what’s best for kids when it comes to teachers, nine California public school children – with the help of Students Matter – filed the statewide lawsuit Vergara v. California in May 2012.
HQPE Ballot Initiative
Despite decades of work, public education has not met the needs of California students. Bold action is needed to ensure that every student has access to a high-quality public education.
A coalition of parents, teachers, civil rights leaders, community advocates and business leaders have put forth a ballot measure that would amend the California Constitution to establish high-quality public education as a civil right for all students.