Los Angeles Superintendent Sues State To Preserve Busing Funding

Coverage continues today of Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy's having announced plans to take legal action to prevent state budget cuts which would end an integration-related busing program. Education Week (12/15, Jones) reports that Deasy is "acting on behalf of 38,000 magnet and special-education students," and filed suit Wednesday "challenging the state's trigger cuts that would wipe out the $38 million busing program for the rest of the school year." The school board approved the action "as Gov. Jerry Brown was announcing that a shortfall in new revenue would trigger massive cuts in public education statewide." The complaint argues "that the loss of the home-to-school transportation money will mean the end of voluntary busing to scores of magnet schools that are the backbone of its court-ordered desegregation program."