California schools fail to teach children to read or write, suit says

In this May 10, 2011, file photo, Van Buren Elementary school teacher Debra Keyes teaches a class in Stockton, Calif. A group of prominent lawyers representing teachers and students from poor performing schools filed a lawsuit against the state of California on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2017, arguing that the state has done nothing about a high number of school children who do not know how to read. Van Buren Elementary School is among the plaintiffs. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, file) less In this May 10, 2011, file photo, Van Buren Elementary school teacher Debra Keyes teaches a class in Stockton, Calif. A group of prominent lawyers representing teachers and students from poor performing schools ... more Photo: Paul Sakuma, Associated Press Photo: Paul Sakuma, Associated Press Image 1 of / 22 Caption Close California schools fail to teach children to read or write, suit says 1 / 22 Back to Gallery

California has broken its promise to millions of schoolchildren with an education system that is failing to teach students to read or write, advocates charged Tuesday in a lawsuit seeking a statewide right of “access to literacy.”

The suit was filed on behalf of current and former elementary school students and their families in two districts in Los Angeles and Stockton, and a charter school in Los Angeles County. The lead plaintiff is a 7-year-old second-grader who can’t spell words like “need” and “help,” lawyers said.

They said students in one charter school class couldn’t read their social studies lesson and had to listen to an audio version. Some Stockton students “start crying when asked to read out loud in class,” the lawsuit said. And one student said his brother didn’t learn to read until he was held in juvenile hall at age 16.

Statewide, the picture is equally grim, the suit said: Among the nation’s largest school districts, California has 11 of the 26 lowest-performing districts in literacy and basic education.

“California is dragging down the nation,” said attorney Mark Rosenbaum of the nonprofit Public Counsel, which filed the suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court along with the San Francisco law firm of Morrison & Foerster.

In response, the state Department of Education, a defendant in the suit, said California “has one of the most ambitious programs in the nation to serve low-income students.”

The state spends more than $10 billion a year on programs for English learners, students from low-income families and foster youths, said the department, headed by Superintendent Tom Torlakson. It said it will provide further support next year to 228 school districts, including those of the three schools in the suit.

The California Constitution guarantees students the right to a public school education. But in another suit, a state appeals court in San Francisco ruled last year that the Constitution does not give students the right to an education at any particular level of quality. The court refused to order an increase in school funding levels that are among the nation’s lowest. The state Supreme Court denied review of an appeal by the plaintiffs — who included the California Teachers Association and the state PTA — on a 4-3 vote.

Rosenbaum said the new suit is different.

“That case was about seeking a certain quantum of money,” he said. “We’re about seeking a quantum of education, so that all children learn how to read.”

Specifically, the suit accused state education officials of ignoring a 2012 report by experts they had brought in to assess literacy in the schools.

The report found an “urgent need to address the language and literacy development of California’s underserved populations,” particularly minorities and the poor, and called for new approaches to reading instruction, early screening and remedial help. It also recommended steps to create a “welcoming environment” for parents who speak a language other than English at home.

None of those recommendations has been implemented, and “students in California continue to suffer from illiteracy,” the suit said. It seeks court orders requiring “appropriate literacy instruction at all grade levels” along with periodic screening of students to detect problems.

California, with more than 6 million public school students, plunged from the top to the bottom of national rankings in both school spending and test scores after passage of the Proposition 13 property tax cut in 1978. But Rosenbaum argued that improving student literacy would cost less than the current system.

“Once we have a system of literacy instruction,” he said, “you don’t have to repeat kids (in their grade levels), suspensions and expulsions will go way down, and you will not have teacher turnover and staff instability.”

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko