We are called upon to determine whether the California public school financing system, with its substantial dependence on local property taxes and resultant wide disparities in school revenue, violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. We have determined that this funding scheme invidiously discriminates against the poor because it makes the quality of a child's education a function of the wealth of his parents and neighbors. Recognizing as we must that the right to an education in our public schools is a fundamental interest which cannot be conditioned on wealth, we can discern no compelling state purpose necessitating the present method of financing. We have concluded, therefore, that such a system cannot withstand constitutional challenge and must fall before the equal protection clause.
Plaintiffs, who are Los Angeles County public school children and their parents, brought this class action for declaratory and injunctive relief against certain state and county officials charged with administering the financing of the California public school system. Plaintiff children claim to represent a class consisting of all public school pupils in California, "except children in that school district, the identity of which is presently unknown, which school district affords the greatest educational opportunity of all school districts within California." Plaintiff parents purport to represent a class of all parents who have children in the school system and who pay real property taxes in the county of their residence.
Defendants are the Treasurer, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the Controller of the State of California, as well as the Tax Collector and Treasurer, and the Superintendent of Schools of the County of Los Angeles. The county officials are sued both in their local capacities and as representatives of a class composed of the school superintendent, tax collector and treasurer of each of the other counties in the state.
The complaint sets forth three causes of action. The first cause alleges in
It is alleged that "As a direct result of the financing scheme... substantial disparities in the quality and extent of availability of educational opportunities exist and are perpetuated among the several school districts of the State.... [Par.] The educational opportunities made available to children attending public schools in the Districts, including plaintiff children, are substantially inferior to the educational opportunities made available to children attending public schools in many other districts of the State...." The financing scheme thus fails to meet the requirements of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and the California Constitution in several specified respects.
In the second cause of action, plaintiff parents, after incorporating by reference all the allegations of the first cause, allege that as a direct result of the financing scheme they are required to pay a higher tax rate than taxpayers
In the third cause of action, after incorporating by reference all the allegations of the first two causes, all plaintiffs allege that an actual controversy has arisen and now exists between the parties as to the validity and constitutionality of the financing scheme under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and under the California Constitution.
Plaintiffs pray for: (1) a declaration that the present financing system is unconstitutional; (2) an order directing defendants to reallocate school funds in order to remedy this invalidity; and (3) an adjudication that the trial court retain jurisdiction of the action so that it may restructure the system if defendants and the state Legislature fail to act within a reasonable time.
All defendants filed general demurrers to the foregoing complaint asserting that none of the three claims stated facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. The trial court sustained the demurrers with leave to amend. Upon plaintiffs' failure to amend, defendants' motion for dismissal was granted. (Code Civ. Proc., § 581, subd. 3.) An order of dismissal was entered (Code Civ. Proc., § 581d), and this appeal followed.
Preliminarily we observe that in our examination of the instant complaint, we are guided by the long-settled rules for determining its sufficiency against a demurrer.
I
We begin our task by examining the California public school financing system which is the focal point of the complaint's allegations. At the threshold we find a fundamental statistic — over 90 percent of our public school funds derive from two basic sources: (a) local district taxes on real property and (b) aid from the State School Fund.
The other factor determining local school revenue is the rate of taxation within the district. Although the Legislature has placed ceilings on permissible district tax rates (§ 20751 et seq.), these statutory maxima may be surpassed in a "tax override" election if a majority of the district's voters approve a higher rate. (§ 20803 et seq.) Nearly all districts have voted to override the statutory limits. Thus the locally raised funds which constitute the largest portion of school revenue are primarily a function of the value of the realty within a particular school district, coupled with the willingness of the district's residents to tax themselves for education.
Most of the remaining school revenue comes from the State School Fund pursuant to the "foundation program," through which the state undertakes to supplement local taxes in order to provide a "minimum amount of guaranteed
The state contribution is supplied in two principal forms. "Basic state aid" consists of a flat grant to each district of $125 per pupil per year, regardless of the relative wealth of the district. (Cal. Const., art. IX, § 6, par. 4; Ed. Code, §§ 17751, 17801.) "Equalization aid" is distributed in inverse proportion to the wealth of the district.
To compute the amount of equalization aid to which a district is entitled, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction first determines how much local property tax revenue would be generated if the district were to levy a hypothetical tax at a rate of $1 on each $100 of assessed valuation in elementary school districts and $.80 per $100 in high school districts.
An additional state program of "supplemental aid" is available to subsidize particularly poor school districts which are willing to make an extra local tax effort. An elementary district with an assessed valuation of $12,500 or less per pupil may obtain up to $125 more for each child if it sets its local tax rate above a certain statutory level. A high school district whose assessed valuation does not exceed $24,500 per pupil is eligible for a supplement of up to $72 per child if its local tax is sufficiently high. (§§ 17920-17926.)
Furthermore, basic aid, which constitutes about half of the state educational funds (Legislative Analyst, Public School Finance, Part II, The State School Fund: Its Derivation, Distribution and Apportionment (1970) p. 9), actually widens the gap between rich and poor districts. (See Cal. Senate Fact Finding Committee on Revenue and Taxation, State and Local Fiscal Relationships in Public Education in California (1965) p. 19.) Such aid is
For Baldwin Park the basic grant is essentially meaningless. Under the foundation program the state must make up the difference between $355 per elementary child and $47.91, the amount of revenue per child which Baldwin Park could raise by levying a tax of $1 per $100 of assessed valuation. Although under present law, that difference is composed partly of basic aid and partly of equalization aid, if the basic aid grant did not exist, the district would still receive the same amount of state aid — all in equalizing funds.
For Beverly Hills, however, the $125 flat grant has real financial significance. Since a tax rate of $1 per $100 there would produce $870 per elementary student, Beverly Hills is far too rich to qualify for equalizing aid. Nevertheless, it still receives $125 per child from the state, thus enlarging the economic chasm between it and Baldwin Park. (See Coons, Clune & Sugarman, Educational Opportunity: A Workable Constitutional Test of State Financial Structures (1969) 57 Cal.L.Rev. 305, 315.)
II
Having outlined the basic framework of California school financing, we take up plaintiffs' legal claims.
We have held that the word "system," as used in article IX, section 5, implies a "unity of purpose as well as an entirety of operation, and the direction to the legislature to provide `a' system of common schools means one system which shall be applicable to all the common schools within the state." (Kennedy v. Miller (1893) 97 Cal. 429, 432 [32 P. 558].) However,
We think it would be erroneous to hold otherwise. While article IX, section 5 makes no reference to school financing, section 6 of that same article specifically authorizes the very element of the fiscal system of which plaintiffs complain. Section 6 states, in part: "The Legislature shall provide for the levying annually by the governing board of each county, and city and county, of such school district taxes, at rates ... as will produce in each fiscal year such revenue for each school district as the governing board thereof shall determine is required...."
III
Having disposed of these preliminary matters, we take up the chief contention underlying plaintiffs' complaint, namely that the California public school financing scheme violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
A
Wealth as a Suspect Classification
In recent years, the United States Supreme Court has demonstrated a marked antipathy toward legislative classifications which discriminate on the basis of certain "suspect" personal characteristics. One factor which has repeatedly come under the close scrutiny of the high court is wealth. "Lines drawn on the basis of wealth or property, like those of race [citation], are traditionally disfavored." (Harper v. Virginia Bd. of Elections (1966) 383 U.S. 663, 668 [16 L.Ed.2d 169, 173, 86 S.Ct. 1079].) Invalidating the Virginia poll tax in Harper, the court stated: "To introduce wealth or payment of a fee as a measure of a voter's qualifications is to introduce a capricious or irrelevant factor." (Id.)
Defendants vigorously dispute the proposition that the financing scheme discriminates on the basis of wealth. Their first argument is essentially this: through basic aid, the state distributes school funds equally to all pupils; through equalization aid, it distributes funds in a manner beneficial to the poor districts. However, state funds constitute only one part of the entire school fiscal system.
But, say defendants, the expenditure per child does not accurately reflect a district's wealth because that expenditure is partly determined by the district's tax rate. Thus, a district with a high total assessed valuation might levy a low school tax, and end up spending the same amount per pupil as a poorer district whose residents opt to pay higher taxes. This argument is also meritless. Obviously, the richer district is favored when it can provide the same educational quality for its children with less tax effort. Furthermore, as a statistical matter, the poorer districts are financially unable to raise their taxes high enough to match the educational
Finally, defendants suggest that the wealth of a school district does not necessarily reflect the wealth of the families who live there. The simple answer to this argument is that plaintiffs have alleged that there is a
More basically, however, we reject defendants' underlying thesis that classification by wealth is constitutional so long as the wealth is that of the district, not the individual. We think that discrimination on the basis of district wealth is equally invalid. The commercial and industrial property which augments a district's tax base is distributed unevenly throughout the state. To allot more educational dollars to the children of one district than to those of another merely because of the fortuitous presence of such property is to make the quality of a child's education dependent upon the location of private commercial and industrial establishments.
Defendants, assuming for the sake of argument that the financing system does classify by wealth, nevertheless claim that no constitutional infirmity is involved because the complaint contains no allegation of purposeful or intentional discrimination. (Cf. Gomillion v. Lightfoot (1960) 364 U.S. 339 [5 L.Ed.2d 110, 81 S.Ct. 125].) Thus, defendants contend, any unequal treatment is only de facto, not de jure. Since the United States
We think that the whole structure of this argument must fall for want of a solid foundation in law and logic. First, none of the wealth classifications previously invalidated by the United States Supreme Court or this court has been the product of purposeful discrimination. Instead, these prior decisions have involved "unintentional" classifications whose impact simply fell more heavily on the poor.
For example, several cases have held that where important rights are at stake, the state has an affirmative obligation to relieve an indigent of the burden of his own poverty by supplying without charge certain goods or services for which others must pay. In Griffin v. Illinois, supra, 351 U.S. 12, the high court ruled that Illinois was required to provide a poor defendant with a free transcript on appeal.
Other cases dealing with the factor of wealth have held that a state may not impose on an indigent certain payments which, although neutral on their face, may have a discriminatory effect. In Harper v. Virginia Bd. of Elections, supra, 383 U.S. 663, the high court struck down a $1.50 poll tax, not because its purpose was to deter indigents from voting, but because its result might be such. (Id. at p. 666, fn. 3 [16 L.Ed.2d at p. 172].) We held in In re Antazo, supra, 3 Cal.3d 100 that a poor defendant was denied equal protection of the law if he was imprisoned simply because he could not afford to pay a fine. (Accord, Tate v. Short, supra, 401 U.S. 395; Williams v. Illinois, supra, 399 U.S. 235;
We turn now to defendants' related contention that the instant case involves at most de facto discrimination. We disagree. Indeed, we find the case unusual in the extent to which governmental action is the cause of the wealth classifications. The school funding scheme is mandated in every detail by the California Constitution and statutes. Although private residential and commercial patterns may be partly responsible for the distribution of assessed valuation throughout the state, such patterns are shaped and hardened by zoning ordinances and other governmental land use controls which promote economic exclusivity. (Cf. San Francisco Unified School Dist. v. Johnson (1971) 3 Cal.3d 937, 956 [92 Cal.Rptr. 309, 479 P.2d 669].) Governmental action drew the school district boundary lines, thus determining how much local wealth each district would contain. (Cal. Const., art. IX, § 14; Ed. Code, § 1601 et seq.; Worthington S. Dist. v. Eureka S. Dist. (1916) 173 Cal. 154, 156 [159 P. 437]; Hughes v. Ewing (1892) 93 Cal. 414, 417 [28 P. 1067]; Mountain View Sch. Dist. v. City Council (1959) 168 Cal.App.2d 89, 97 [335 P.2d 957].) Compared with Griffin and Douglas, for example, official activity has played a significant role in establishing the economic classifications challenged in this action.
Finally, even assuming arguendo that defendants are correct in their contention that the instant discrimination based on wealth is merely de facto, and not de jure,
B
Education as a Fundamental Interest
But plaintiffs' equal protection attack on the fiscal system has an additional dimension. They assert that the system not only draws lines on the basis of wealth but that it "touches upon," indeed has a direct and significant impact upon, a "fundamental interest," namely education. It is urged that these two grounds, particularly in combination, establish a demonstrable denial of equal protection of the laws. To this phase of the argument we now turn our attention.
Until the present time wealth classifications have been invalidated only in conjunction with a limited number of fundamental interests — rights of defendants in criminal cases (Griffin; Douglas; Williams; Tate; Antazo) and voting rights (Harper; Cipriano v. City of Houma (1969) 395 U.S. 701 [23 L.Ed.2d 647, 89 S.Ct. 1897]; Kramer v. Union School District (1969) 395 U.S. 621 [23 L.Ed.2d 583, 89 S.Ct. 1886]; cf. McDonald v. Board of Elections, supra, 394 U.S. 802).
The fundamental importance of education has been recognized in other contexts by the United States Supreme Court and by this court. These decisions — while not legally controlling on the exact issue before us — are persuasive in their accurate factual description of the significance of learning.
The twin themes of the importance of education to the individual and to society have recurred in numerous decisions of this court. Most recently in San Francisco Unified School Dist. v. Johnson, supra, 3 Cal.3d 937, where we considered the validity of an anti-busing statute, we observed, "[u]nequal education, then, leads to unequal job opportunities, disparate income, and handicapped ability to participate in the social, cultural, and political activity of our society." (Id. at p. 950.) Similarly, in Jackson v. Pasadena City School Dist., supra, 59 Cal.2d 876, which raised a claim that school districts had been gerrymandered to avoid integration, this court said: "In view of the importance of education to society and to the individual child, the opportunity to receive the schooling furnished by the state must be made available to all on an equal basis." (Id. at p. 880.)
When children living in remote areas brought an action to compel local school authorities to furnish them bus transportation to class, we stated: "We indulge in no hyperbole to assert that society has a compelling interest in affording children an opportunity to attend school. This was evidenced more than three centuries ago, when Massachusetts provided the first public school system in 1647. [Citation.] And today an education has become the sine qua non of useful existence.... In light of the public interest in conserving the resource of young minds, we must unsympathetically examine any action of a public body which has the effect of depriving children of the opportunity to obtain an education." (Fn. omitted.)
And long before these last mentioned cases, in Piper v. Big Pine School Dist., supra, 193 Cal. 664, where an Indian girl sought to attend state public schools, we declared: "[T]he common schools are doorways opening into chambers of science, art, and the learned professions, as well as into fields of industrial and commercial activities. Opportunities for securing employment are often more or less dependent upon the rating which a youth, as a pupil of our public institutions, has received in his school work. These are rights and privileges that cannot be denied." (Id. at p. 673; see also Ward v. Flood (1874) 48 Cal. 36.) Although Manjares and Piper involved actual exclusion from the public schools, surely the right to an education today means more than access to a classroom.
It is illuminating to compare in importance the right to an education with the rights of defendants in criminal cases and the right to vote — two "fundamental interests" which the Supreme Court has already protected against discrimination based on wealth. Although an individual's interest in his freedom is unique, we think that from a larger perspective, education may have far greater social significance than a free transcript or a court-appointed lawyer. "[E]ducation not only affects directly a vastly greater number of persons than the criminal law, but it affects them in ways which — to the state — have an enormous and much more varied significance. Aside from reducing the crime rate (the inverse relation is strong), education also supports each and every other value of a democratic society — participation, communication, and social mobility, to name but a few." (Fn. omitted.) (Coons, Clune & Sugarman, supra, 57 Cal.L.Rev. 305, 362-363.)
The analogy between education and voting is much more direct: both are crucial to participation in, and the functioning of, a democracy. Voting
The need for an educated populace assumes greater importance as the problems of our diverse society become increasingly complex. The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized the role of public education as a unifying social force and the basic tool for shaping democratic values. The public school has been termed "the most powerful agency for promoting cohesion among a heterogeneous democratic people ... at once the symbol of our democracy and the most pervasive means for promoting our common destiny." (McCollum v. Board of Education (1948) 333 U.S. 203, 216, 231 [92 L.Ed. 649, 661, 669, 68 S.Ct. 461, 2 A.L.R.2d 1338] (Frankfurter, J., concurring).) In Abington School Dist. v. Schempp (1963) 374 U.S. 203 [10 L.Ed.2d 844, 83 S.Ct. 1560], it was said that "Americans regard public schools as a most vital civic institution for the preservation of a democratic system of government." (Id. at p. 230 [10 L.Ed.2d at p. 863] (Brennan, J., concurring).)
First, education is essential in maintaining what several commentators have termed "free enterprise democracy" — that is, preserving an individual's opportunity to compete successfully in the economic marketplace, despite a disadvantaged background. Accordingly, the public schools of this state are the bright hope for entry of the poor and oppressed into the mainstream of American society.
Second, education is universally relevant. "Not every person finds it necessary to call upon the fire department or even the police in an entire lifetime. Relatively few are on welfare. Every person, however, benefits from education...." (Fn. omitted.) (Coons, Clune & Sugarman, supra, 57 Cal.L.Rev. at p. 388.)
Third, public education continues over a lengthy period of life — between 10 and 13 years. Few other government services have such sustained, intensive contact with the recipient.
Fourth, education is unmatched in the extent to which it molds the
Finally, education is so important that the state has made it compulsory — not only in the requirement of attendance but also by assignment to a particular district and school. Although a child of wealthy parents has the opportunity to attend a private school, this freedom is seldom available to the indigent. In this context, it has been suggested that "a child of the poor assigned willy-nilly to an inferior state school takes on the complexion of a prisoner, complete with a minimum sentence of 12 years." (Coons, Clune & Sugarman, supra, 57 Cal.L.Rev. at p. 388.)
C
The Financing System Is Not Necessary to Accomplish a Compelling State Interest
The state interest which defendants advance in support of the current fiscal scheme is California's policy "to strengthen and encourage local responsibility for control of public education." (Ed. Code, § 17300.) We treat separately the two possible aspects of this goal: first, the granting to local districts of effective decision-making power over the administration of their schools; and second, the promotion of local fiscal control over the amount of money to be spent on education.
The individual district may well be in the best position to decide whom to hire, how to schedule its educational offerings, and a host of other matters which are either of significant local impact or of such a detailed nature as to require decentralized determination. But even assuming arguendo that local administrative control may be a compelling state interest, the present financial system cannot be considered necessary to further this interest. No matter how the state decides to finance its system of public education, it can still leave this decision-making power in the hands of local districts.
We need not decide whether such decentralized financial decision-making is a compelling state interest, since under the present financing system, such fiscal freewill is a cruel illusion for the poor school districts. We cannot agree that Baldwin Park residents care less about education than those in Beverly Hills solely because Baldwin Park spends less than $600 per child while Beverly Hills spends over $1,200. As defendants themselves recognize, perhaps the most accurate reflection of a community's commitment to education is the rate at which its citizens are willing to tax themselves to support their schools. Yet by that standard, Baldwin Park should be deemed far more devoted to learning than Beverly Hills, for Baldwin Park citizens levied a school tax of well over $5 per $100 of assessed valuation, while residents of Beverly Hills paid only slightly more than $2.
In summary, so long as the assessed valuation within a district's boundaries is a major determinant of how much it can spend for its schools, only a district with a large tax base will be truly able to decide how much it really cares about education. The poor district cannot freely choose to tax itself into an excellence which its tax rolls cannot provide. Far from being necessary to promote local fiscal choice, the present financing system actually deprives the less wealthy districts of that option.
It is convenient at this point to dispose of two final arguments advanced by defendants. They assert, first, that territorial uniformity in respect to the present financing system is not constitutionally required; and secondly, that if under an equal protection mandate relative wealth may not determine the quality of public education, the same rule must be applied to all tax-supported public services.
In support of their first argument, defendants cite Salsburg v. Maryland (1954) 346 U.S. 545 [98 L.Ed. 281, 74 S.Ct. 280] and Board of Education v. Watson, supra, 63 Cal.2d 829. We do not find these decisions apposite in the present context, for neither of them involved the basic
The first group of precedents consists of the school closing cases, in which the Supreme Court has invalidated efforts to shut schools in one part of a state while schools in other areas continued to operate. In Griffin v. School Board (1964) 377 U.S. 218 [12 L.Ed.2d 256, 84 S.Ct. 1226] the court stated: "A state, of course, has a wide discretion in deciding whether laws shall operate statewide or shall operate only in certain counties, the legislature `having in mind the needs and desires of each.' Salsburg v. Maryland, supra, 346 U.S., at 552.... But the record in the present case could not be clearer that Prince Edward's public schools were closed ... for one reason, and one reason only: to ensure ... that white and colored children in Prince Edward County would not, under any circumstances, go to the same school. Whatever nonracial grounds might support a State's allowing a county to abandon public schools, the object must be a constitutional one...." (Id. at p. 231 [12 L.Ed.2d at p. 265].)
Similarly, Hall v. St. Helena Parish School Board (E.D.La. 1961) 197 F.Supp. 649, affd. mem. (1962) 368 U.S. 515 [7 L.Ed.2d 521, 82 S.Ct. 529] held that a statute permitting a local district faced with integration to close its schools was constitutionally defective, not merely because of its racial consequences: "More generally, the Act is assailable because its application in one parish, while the state provides public schools elsewhere, would unfairly discriminate against the residents of that parish, irrespective of race.... [A]bsent a reasonable basis for so classifying, a state cannot close the public schools in one area while, at the same time, it maintains schools elsewhere with public funds." (Fn. omitted.) (Id. at pp. 651, 656.)
In the second group of cases, dealing with apportionment, the high court has held that accidents of geography and arbitrary boundary lines of local government can afford no ground for discrimination among a state's citizens. (Kurland, Equal Educational Opportunity: The Limits of Constitutional Jurisprudence Undefined (1968) 35 U.Chi.L.Rev. 583, 585; see also Wise, Rich Schools, Poor Schools: The Promise of Equal Educational Opportunity (1969) pp. 66-92.) Specifically rejecting attempts to justify unequal districting on the basis of various geographic factors, the court declared: "Diluting the weight of votes because of place of residence impairs basic constitutional rights under the Fourteenth Amendment just as much as invidious discriminations based upon factors such as race [citation] or economic status, Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U.S. 12, Douglas v. California, 372 U.S. 353.... The fact that an individual lives here or there is not a legitimate reason for overweighting or diluting the efficacy of his vote." (Reynolds v. Sims, supra, 377 U.S. 533, 566, 567 [12 L.Ed.2d 506, 529, 530].) If a voter's address may not determine the weight to which his ballot is entitled, surely it should not determine the quality of his child's education.
IV
The plaintiffs in McInnis challenged the Illinois school financing system, which is similar to California's, as a violation of the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment because of the wide variations among districts in school expenditures per pupil. They contended that "only a financing system which apportions public funds according to the educational needs of the students satisfies the Fourteenth Amendment." (Fn. omitted.) (293 F. Supp. at p. 331.)
A three-judge federal district court concluded that the complaint stated no cause of action "for two principal reasons: (1) the Fourteenth Amendment does not require that public school expenditures be made only on the basis of pupils' educational needs, and (2) the lack of judicially manageable standards makes this controversy nonjusticiable." (Fn. omitted.) (293 F. Supp. at p. 329.) (Italics added.) The court additionally rejected the applicability of the strict scrutiny equal protection standard and ruled that the Illinois financing scheme was rational because it was "designed to allow individual localities to determine their own tax burden
Defendants argue that the high court's summary affirmance forecloses our independent examination of the issues involved. We disagree.
Since McInnis reached the Supreme Court by way of appeal from a three-judge federal court, the high court's jurisdiction was not discretionary. (28 U.S.C. § 1253 (1964).) In these circumstances, defendants are correct in stating that a summary affirmance is formally a decision on the merits. However, the significance of such summary dispositions is often unclear, especially where, as in McInnis, the court cites no cases as authority and guidance. One commentator has stated, "It has often been observed that the dismissal of an appeal, technically an adjudication on the merits, is in practice often the substantial equivalent of a denial of certiorari."
In sum, we find the allegations of plaintiffs' complaint legally sufficient and we return the cause to the trial court for further proceedings. We emphasize, that our decision is not a final judgment on the merits. We deem it appropriate to point out for the benefit of the trial court on remand (see Code Civ. Proc., § 43) that if, after further proceedings, that court should enter final judgment determining that the existing system of public school financing is unconstitutional and invalidating said system in whole or in part, it may properly provide for the enforcement of the judgment in such a way as to permit an orderly transition from an unconstitutional to a constitutional system of school financing.
By our holding today we further the cherished idea of American education that in a democratic society free public schools shall make available to all children equally the abundant gifts of learning. This was the credo of Horace Mann, which has been the heritage and the inspiration of this country. "I believe," he wrote, "in the existence of a great, immortal immutable principle of natural law, or natural ethics, — a principle antecedent to all human institutions, and incapable of being abrogated by any ordinance of man ... which proves the absolute right to an education of every human being that comes into the world, and which, of course, proves the correlative duty of every government to see that the means of that education are provided for all...." (Original italics.) (Old South Leaflets V, No. 109 (1846) pp. 177-180 (Tenth Annual Report to Mass. State Bd. of Ed.), quoted in Readings in American Education (1963 Lucio ed.) p. 336.)
The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded to the trial court with directions to overrule the demurrers and to allow defendants a reasonable time within which to answer.
Wright, C.J., Peters, J., Tobriner, J., Mosk, J., and Burke, J., concurred.
I dissent. I would affirm the judgment for the reasons expressed by Mr. Justice Dunn in the opinion prepared by him for the Court of Appeal in Serrano v. Priest (Cal. App.) 89 Cal.Rptr. 345.
Respondents' petition for a rehearing was denied October 21, 1971, and the opinion was modified to read as printed above. McComb, J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted.
FootNotes
"A. Makes the quality of education for school age children in California, including Plaintiff Children, a function of the wealth of the children's parents and neighbors, as measured by the tax base of the school district in which said children reside, and
"B. Makes the quality of education for school age children in California, including Plaintiff Children, a function of the geographical accident of the school district in which said children reside, and
"C. Fails to take account of any of the variety of educational needs of the several school districts (and of the children therein) of the State of California, and
"D. Provides students living in some school districts of the State with material advantages over students in other school districts in selecting and pursuing their educational goals, and
"E. Fails to provide children of substantially equal age, aptitude, motivation, and ability with substantially equal educational resources, and
"F. Perpetuates marked differences in the quality of educational services, equipment and other facilities which exist among the public school districts of the State as a result of the inequitable apportionment of State resources in past years.
"G. The use of the `school district' as a unit for the differential allocation of educational funds bears no reasonable relation to the California legislative purpose of providing equal educational opportunity for all school children within the State.
"H. The part of the State financing scheme which permits each school district to retain and expend within that district all of the property tax collected within that district bears no reasonable relation to any educational objective or need.
"I. A disproportionate number of school children who are black children, children with Spanish surnames, children belonging to other minority groups reside in school districts in which a relatively inferior educational opportunity is provided."
Certain types of school districts are eligible for "bonus" foundation funds. Elementary districts receive an additional $30 for each student in grades 1 through 3; this sum is intended to reduce class size in those grades. (§ 17674.) Unified school districts get an extra $20 per child in foundation support. (§§ 17671-17673.)
Elementary High School
Low .......................................... $103 11,959
Median ....................................... 19,600 41,300
High ......................................... 952,156 349,093
(Legislative Analyst, Part V, supra, p. 7.)
Per pupil expenditures during that year also varied widely:
Elementary High School Unified
Low .................................... $407 $722 $612
Median ................................. 672 898 766
High ................................... 2,586 1,767 2,414
(Id. at p. 8.)
Similar spending disparities have been noted throughout the country, particularly when suburban communities and urban ghettos are compared. (See, e.g., Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Bantam ed. 1968) pp. 434-436; U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Racial Isolation in the Public Schools (1967) pp. 25-31; Conant, Slums and Suburbs (1961) pp. 2-3; Levi, The University, The Professions, and the Law (1968) 56 Cal.L.Rev. 251, 258-259.)
We do not find this decision relevant to the present action. Here, plaintiffs specifically allege that the allocation of school funds systematically provides greater educational opportunities to affluent children than are afforded to the poor. By contrast, in Briggs the court found no wealth-oriented discrimination: "There is no pattern such that schools with lunch programs predominate in areas of relative wealth and schools without the program in areas of economic deprivation." (Id. at p. 302.)
Furthermore, the nature of the right involved in the two cases is very different. The instant action concerns the right to an education, which we have determined to be fundamental. (See infra.) Availability of an inexpensive school lunch can hardly be considered of such constitutional significance.
We realize, of course, that a portion of the high per-pupil expenditure in a district like Gorman may be attributable to certain costs, like a principal's salary, which do not vary with the size of the school. On such expenses, small schools cannot achieve the economies of scale available to a larger district. To this extent, the high per-pupil spending in a small district may be a paper statistic, which is unrepresentative of significant differences in educational opportunties. On the other hand, certain economic "inefficiencies," such as a low pupil-teacher ratio, may have a positive educational impact. The extent to which high spending in such districts represents actual educational advantages is, of course, a matter of proof. (See fn. 16, infra. See generally Hobson v. Hansen (D.C. 1967) 269 F.Supp. 401, 437, affd. sub nom. Smuck v. Hobson (1969) 408 F.2d 175 [132 App.D.C. 372].)
COMPARISON OF SELECTED TAX RATES AND EXPENDITURE LEVELS
IN SELECTED COUNTIES
1968-1969
Assessed Expenditure
Value per Tax per
County ADA ADA Rate ADA
Alameda
Emery Unified ............... 586 $100,187 $2.57 $2,223
Newark Unified .............. 8,638 6,048 5.65 616
Fresno
Coalinga Unified ............ 2,640 $ 33,244 $2.17 $ 963
Clovis Unified .............. 8,144 6,480 4.28 565
Kern
Rio Bravo Elementary ........ 121 $136,271 $1.05 $1,545
Lamont Elementary ........... 1,847 5,971 3.06 533
Los Angeles
Beverly Hills Unified ....... 5,542 $ 50,885 $2.38 $1,232
Baldwin Park Unified ........ 13,108 3,706 5.48 577
(Id. at p. 9.)
This fact has received comment in reports by several California governmental units. "[S]ome school districts are able to provide a high-expenditure school program at rates of tax which are relatively low, while other districts must tax themselves heavily to finance a low-expenditure program.... [Par.] One significant criterion of a public activity is that it seeks to provide equal treatment of equals. The present system of public education ... in California fails to meet this criterion, both with respect to provision of services and with respect to the geographic distribution of the tax burden." (Cal. Senate Fact Finding Committee on Revenue and Taxation, op. cit. supra, p. 20.)
"California's present system of school support is based largely on a sharing between the state and school districts of the expenses of education. In this system of sharing, the school district has but one source of revenue — the property tax. Therefore, its ability to share depends upon its assessed valuation per pupil and its tax effort. The variations existing in local ability (assessed valuation per pupil) and tax effort (tax rate) present problems which deny equal educational opportunity and local tax equity." (Cal. State Dept. of Ed., Recommendations on Public School Support (1967) p. 69.) (Quoted in Horowitz & Neitring, Equal Protection Aspects of Inequalities in Public Education and Public Assistance Programs from Place to Place Within a State (1968) 15 U.C.L.A.L.Rev. 787, 806.)
Although we recognize that there is considerable controversy among educators over the relative impact of educational spending and environmental influences on school achievement (compare Coleman et al., Equality of Educational Opportunity (U.S. Office of Ed. 1966) with Guthrie, Kleindorfer, Levin & Stout, Schools and Inequality (1971); see generally Coons, Clune & Sugarman, supra, 57 Cal.L.Rev. 305, 310-311, fn. 16), we note that the several courts which have considered contentions similar to defendants' have uniformly rejected them.
In McInnis v. Shapiro (N.D.Ill. 1968) 293 F.Supp. 327, affd. mem. sub nom. McInnis v. Ogilvie (1969) 394 U.S. 322 [22 L.Ed.2d 308, 89 S.Ct. 1197], heavily relied on by defendants, a three-judge federal court stated: "Presumably, students receiving a $1,000 education are better educated that [sic] those acquiring a $600 schooling." (Fn. omitted.) (Id. at p. 331.) In Hargrave v. Kirk (M.D.Fla. 1970) 313 F.Supp. 944, vacated on other grounds sub nom. Askew v. Hargrave (1971) 401 U.S. 476 [28 L.Ed.2d 196, 91 S.Ct. 856], the court declared: "Turning now to the defenses asserted, it may be that in the abstract `the difference in dollars available does not necessarily produce a difference in the quality of education.' But this abstract statement must give way to proof to the contrary in this case." (Id. at p. 947.)
Spending differentials of up to $130 within a district were characterized as "spectacular" in Hobson v. Hansen, supra, 269 F.Supp. 401. Responding to defendants' claim that the varying expenditures did not reflect actual educational benefits, the court replied: "To a great extent ... defendants' own evidence verifies that the comparative per pupil figures do refer to actual educational advantages in the high-cost schools, especially with respect to the caliber of the teaching staff." (Id. at p. 438.)
A federal Court of Appeals has also held that education is arguably a fundamental interest. In Hargrave v. McKinney (5th Cir.1969) 413 F.2d 320, the Fifth Circuit ruled that a three-judge district court must be convened to consider the constitutionality of a Florida statue which limited the local property tax rate which a county could levy in raising school revenue. Plaintiffs contended that the statute violated the equal protection clause because it allowed counties with a high per-pupil assessed valuation to raise much more local revenue than counties with smaller tax bases. The court stated: "The equal protection argument advanced by plaintiffs is the crux of the case. Noting that lines drawn on wealth are suspect [fn. omitted] and that we are here dealing with interests which may well be deemed fundamental, [fn. omitted] we cannot say that there is no reasonably arguable theory of equal protection which would support a decision in favor of the plaintiffs. [Citations.]" (Id. at p. 324.)
On remand, a three-judge court held the statute unconstitutional because there was no rational basis for the discriminatory effect which it had in poor counties. Having invalidated the statute under the traditional equal protection test, the court declined to consider plaintiffs' contention that education was a fundamental interest, requiring application of the "strict scrutiny" equal protection standard. (Hargrave v. Kirk, supra, 313 F.Supp. 944.) On appeal, the Supreme Court vacated the district court's decision on other grounds, but indicated that on remand the lower court should thoroughly explore the equal protection issue. (Askew v. Hargrave (1971) 401 U.S. 476 [28 L.Ed.2d 196, 91 S.Ct. 856].)
"If the situation were one involving racial imbalance but in some facility other than the public schools, or unequal educational opportunity but without any Negro or poverty aspects (e.g., unequal schools all within an economically homogeneous white suburb), it might be pardonable to uphold the practice on a minimal showing of rational basis. But the fusion of these two elements in de facto segregation in public schools irresistibly calls for additional justification. What supports this call is ... the degree to which the poor and the Negro must rely on the public schools in rescuing themselves from their depressed cultural and economic condition...." (Id. at p. 508.) Although we realize that the instant case does not present the racial aspects present in Hobson, we find compelling that decision's assessment of the important social role of the public schools.
In Watson we rejected a constitutional attack on a statute which required special duties of the tax assessor in counties with a population in excess of four million, even though we recognized that only Los Angeles County would be affected by the legislation. In both cases, the courts simply applied the traditional equal protection test and sustained the provision after finding some rational basis for the geographic classification.
Although racial discrimination was the basis of the decision, the court intimated that wealth discrimination in the provision of city services might also be invalid: "Appellants also alleged the discriminatory provision of municipal services based on wealth. This claim was dropped on appeal. It is interesting to note, however, that the Supreme Court has stated that wealth as well as race renders a classification highly suspect and thus demanding of a more exacting judicial scrutiny. [Citation.]" (Id. at p. 1287, fn. 1.)
The Supreme Court's willingness to order a full hearing by a federal district court on the issues raised in Hargrave v. Kirk (see Askew v. Hargrave, supra, 401 U.S. 476), indicates to us that it does not consider the applicability of the equal protection clause to educational financing foreclosed by its decisions in McInnis and Burruss.
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