LOS ANGELES - Today, on the 46th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, civil rights groups and attorneys in California filed the most comprehensive lawsuit concerning the bare minimums required for education ever to be brought against a state. The historic class-action lawsuit was filed in California Superior Court on behalf of students in eighteen schools located throughout California. The lawsuit charges the state with having reneged on its constitutional obligation to provide at least the bare essentials necessary for education to all students. The suit also charges California with having violated state and federal requirements that equal access to public education be provided without regard to race, color, or national origin.

The suit was filed jointly by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California; ACLU of Northern California; Morrison & Foerster; Public Advocates, Inc.; Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund; Newman, Aaronson, Vanaman; Center for Law in the Public Interest; Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Karl Mannheim, Esq.; Allan Ides, Esq, and Peter Edelman, Esq.

Plaintiffs have been subjected to the following conditions as part of their everyday educational experience:

Lack of Materials and Basic Resources

-no textbooks or other educationally necessary curricular material

-too few textbooks or other educationally necessary curricular material

-outdated or defaced textbooks

-no or not enough basic school supplies

-no access to a library

-no or not enough access to computers and computer instruction

-not enough labs

-no or not enough lab materials

-no access to music or art classes

-too few guidance counselors Inadequate Instruction

-as few as 13% of teachers with full teaching credentials

-chronically unfilled teacher vacancies

-heavy reliance on substitute teachers in place of permanent teachers

-no homework assignments due to lack of materials

Massive Overcrowding

-classes without enough seats and desks, so students sit on counters

-cramped, makeshift classrooms

-multitrack schedules that curtail the calendar length of courses

-multitrack schedules that prevent continuous, year-to-year study in a given subject

-multitrack schedules that force students to take key exams before completing the full course of study

Degraded, Unhealthful Facilities and Conditions

-broken or nonexistent air conditioning or heating systems; extremely hot or cold classrooms

-toilets that don't flush; toilets that are filthy with urine, excrement, or blood; toilets that are locked

-lack of working water fountains

-unrepaired, hazardous facilities, including broken windows, walls, and ceilings

-vermin infestations

-leaky roofs and mold

-no school nurse on premises

"These are schools that shock the conscience, schools where students can't learn and teachers can't teach," said Mark Rosenbaum, Legal Director of the ACLU of Southern California. "These schools are the shame of California."

"The failures this lawsuit addresses are not randomly distributed," observed Julie Su, Litigation Director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center. "They're concentrated in communities of color, in economically struggling communities, and in immigrant communities. The state's neglect has a clearly discriminatory impact."

In fact, data from the California Department of Education show that in plaintiffs' schools, 96.4% of the population is students of color, compared to 59% statewide.

"In one of the only problem categories measured by the state & the percent of uncredentialed teachers in a school," noted Su, "the correlation is clear. The more students of color attending a school, the more untrained teachers will be teaching at that school. The same holds true for students who qualify for free or reduced-cost lunches. These numbers aren't the result of coincidence: this system discriminates."

"This is the Mississippification of California's schools," said Rosenbaum, "a separate and unequal system for the have-nots that would make Linda Brown shudder."

"At the start of the 21st century, all of California's children should be attending state-of-the-art learning centers," said Hector Villagra, staff attorney at Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. "Yet, just as Latino children have become the majority of our state's public school children, California has ignored rampant overcrowding and the urgent need for new school construction, depriving hundreds of thousands of children of the most basic element of an acceptable educational experience. Every child deserves - and the state must provide - room to learn."

"Forty-six years ago today, the Supreme Court in Brown vs. Board of Education rejected a system of inequality that had come to be accepted by many in this country as a natural state of affairs," said Ramona Ripston, Executive Director of the ACLU of Southern California. "Today, we're asking this country to reject another system of unequal education, a system that blocks some children from learning and growing to their full potential. The State of California has the resources to provide all children with a good education, and we cannot afford to do anything less."

LOS ANGELES, CA - City Council Members were asked to vote today in support of the newly gutted racial profiling bill, but raised questions about the bill's efficacy and its lack of a data collection mandate. The Council referred the motion to committee.

"There's obviously been a lot of behind the scenes commotion to try to generate some last-minute support for this mistaken approach," said Ramona Ripston, Executive Director of the ACLU of Southern California, "but the City Council didn't bite. They saw that this new bill is a cynical ploy instead of substantive action. Business cards, diversity training, and current complaint lines are not in themselves enough'that's what the LAPD does now, and it hasn't worked. We need sound, statewide, standardized data so we can identify the worst problem spots and monitor them on an ongoing basis. That creates a regular system of accountability - these are the systems we so desperately need here in Los Angeles, and which Parks and his LAPD refuse to give us."

The Bill, SB 1389, formerly contained a data collection mandate. The current version simply restates an established fact of law - that racial profiling is illegal, and requires law enforcement agencies to institute a system similar to the one put in place by the LAPD.

"Why is the most corrupt and out-of-control police department in the state calling the plays on one of the most pressing civil rights and police practices issues of our day?" asked Ripston. "The LAPD should be held up as a model of how not to institute meaningful civilian complaint procedures - not as the blueprint for our entire state."

Four of the five largest law enforcement agencies in the state have agreed to collect data, leaving LAPD out of step with its counterparts.

LOS ANGELES, CA - "Governor Davis and Senator Murray have colluded in creating a truly empty piece of legislation," said Catherine Lhamon, staff attorney for the ACLU of Southern

California. "Racial profiling in traffic stops is a major issue in this state, a real problem for which Californians of color need a real solution."

Governor Davis and Senator Murray today announced that Senator Murray's racial profiling statistics bill, SB 1389, which would have required the state to gather statistics from law enforcement agencies on racial profiling in traffic stops, has been gutted and replaced with a bill that purports to make racial profiling illegal.

The new bill will also require officers to give their business cards to motorists to whom they do not give a ticket. The agreement between the Governor and the Senator, according to the Governor's office, will also include an expansion of current diversity training efforts.

"The new bill is insufficient," said Lhamon. "Gathering statistics will create knowledge and accountability. Police officers handing out business cards doesn't accomplish that."

"The Governor's proposal relies on practices that in themselves have proven insufficient to the task: more diversity training, married to current complaint systems," said Lhamon. "More and

better training is a good idea, but by itself it's not enough. You have to determine that training has an overall effect on the problem'and you can't do that without statistics."

"Every day as Rampart unfolds, we learn more about the nightmares of a system that asks law enforcement agencies to police themselves," said Lhamon. "In that context, asking the people of Los Angeles and California to trust that police will simply stop racial profiling without any real system of oversight or accountability is absurd."