Honig Calls Suit by Capistrano Schools a ‘Stunt’

State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig lashed out at the Capistrano Unified School District on Wednesday, saying its lawsuit over the state’s school funding system is nothing but a “PR stunt” that detracts from more serious issues.

Honig, in a telephone interview, said the school funding system is fair, with 95% of the school districts receiving about the same amount of money per student. He added that the state is working to bring the other 5% of districts closer to the average.

Capistrano Unified, spearheading a group of 17 districts statewide, filed suit against Honig and the state Department of Education in November, charging that the fund ing system is unconstitutional because some districts receive up to $500 less per student annually than other districts.

“What Capistrano is doing is deceitful,” said Honig, addressing the suit for the first time. “What they have done is focus on a few districts that receive far more than the state average. But what they don’t point out is that few districts are far below the state average. We have put a lot of money into equalization, and I have always been a proponent of equalization.”

Honig said that the districts, instead of pursuing the lawsuit, should be working with his department to try to lessen the $2 billion in education cuts proposed by Gov. Pete Wilson.

Capistrano Unified Supt. Jerome R. Thornsley said that he is “appalled that the superintendent appears to want to make permanent the rather significant differences in the amount of money spent on students in some districts as opposed to others.”

Honig said he doubts the seriousness of the lawsuit because it was filed three months age, and he has not yet been served with a copy. Thornsley said Honig has not been served because another 100 districts are considering whether to join the suit.

According to state records, the average California school district received $2,816 per student last year. Honig said that 95% of the state’s districts receive funding within $250 per student of that mark and “every year we are trying to increase that percentage. When I became superintendent (in 1983), only 40% or 50% were within that range.”

The state’s funding system is a complicated formula based on property values that date back to 1972.

In the landmark 1976 decision of Serrano vs. Priest, a Superior Court judge ruled that the difference between state funding for districts could be no more than $100 a student and gave the state six years to correct any inequities.

In 1983, a judge ruled that because of inflation the difference should be no more than $250 a student and ruled the state’s system constitutional because it was working toward equalization.

Adjustments were made in the wake of these decisions, but discrepancies remain.

In the 1989-90 school year--the last for which full figures are available--the average unified school district received $2,816 per student from the state. Capistrano last year received $2,772 per student, $44 less than average.

But Thornsley pointed out that some districts receive substantially more than the state average. For example, Los Alamitos Unified received $3,204 per student.

With about 25,000 students, if Capistrano had been funded at the state average, it would have received an additional $1.1 million. If it had received the same funding as Los Alamitos, it would have received an additional $10.8 million.

“I think it is inherently unfair that just a couple miles up the freeway, districts are receiving $300, $400, as much as $500 more for each of their students’ education,” Thornsley said. “We are supposed to have a democratic and egalitarian society and this is wrong.”

However, he said, he does not want money taken from Los Alamitos and other such districts. Rather, Thornsley said, they should receive smaller raises in their funding than other districts until eventually all are relatively equal.

“In the years we get a 5% (increase in state funds), maybe these districts should get 3%,” he said.

Honig said progress is being made and that Capistrano and the other districts need to be patient.

“If we were starting over, it would be easy to say that each district should get the same amount per student,” Honig said. “But it is unrealistic to expect us to change the existing system overnight.”