An article the other day in the San Diego Union Tribune highlighted an issue which all taxpayers should be concerned with: school districts and legal fees. The article showed how Sweetwater Union High School District spends approximately three times what other peer school districts do pay for legal fees.

Sweetwater has an enrollment of roughly 42,000 students. The school district is paying an astonishing $1.4 million a year for legal counsel. Compared to the five peer districts, Sweetwater’s legal costs are almost three times higher! Unsurprisingly, legal costs also represented a greater portion of Sweetwater’s budget than the peer districts.

Sweetwater is just one exampleof a district facing out-of-control legal costs. We have over 1,000 school districts in this state, and sadly, Sweetwater's situation is far from unique. In 2010, CALA published a report called Lessons in Lawsuits, which examined the legal costs of 12 school districts in California. Those 12 districts spent close to $100 million over three years.

With teachers being laid off, schools closing and parents worrying about the dropping quality of public education, we need to take a look at how the outrageous legal climate in this state is affecting education and see if there are ways to cut these costs.

Unfortunately, many Californians do not realize what is being lost to lawsuits and litigation in their communities. Due to our state’s lawsuit-friendly legal climate, there truly is not an issue or entity that is not affected by the threat of lawsuits. The example of the legal costs in Sweetwater Union High School District should send a clear message to parents that our state’s legal climate is so bad, it even affects their children’s education.