Angelus News | January 14, 2022 | Vol. 7 No. 1

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The archdiocese is seeking financial
damages, but does not specify the
amount. It asks the court to compel
LAUSD representatives to engage in
“timely and meaningful consultation”
with archdiocesan representatives and
to “properly calculate” the number of
low-income students eligible for Title I
assistance. It also asks for a declaration
that the LAUSD’s “policies, procedures
and conduct” violate the equal
protection and due process rights of the
archdiocese and the rights of children
attending ADLA schools.
By long-standing federal law, Title
I funds are to be distributed equitably
among all low-income students,
regardless of whether they attend
public, private, or religious schools.
Public schools usually act as the agent
for distributing a proportional share to
nonpublic schools, and federal law stipulates
the consultation required in this
process. According to the archdiocese,
beginning in 2019 LAUSD arbitrarily,
and without meaningful consultation,
reduced the number of Catholic
schools eligible for Title I funding from
more than 100 to 17.
The lawsuit states that LAUSD
“has openly and consistently acted to
prevent federally funded services from
reaching eligible, lower-income ADLA
students, and has been indeed quite
frank about its understanding of federal
education programs as a zero sum
game and about its intent to increase
its own share of federal education
monies by artificially reducing ADLA
schools’ share of services funded by
such monies.”
Catholic schools cut from Title I
include those in some of the nation’s
most poverty-plagued urban areas,
such as Watts and East Los Angeles.
The funds had traditionally paid
special teachers who provided struggling,
low-income students with extra
assistance in subjects such as math
and English, and with counseling for
academic difficulties.
The loss of those teachers and counselors
“has prevented those students
from having the supplemental learning
that they need in order to maintain
grade-level performance, and also to
deal with the remedies necessary to
close the gap on any learning losses
they experienced due to the pandemic,”
said Paul Escala, senior director
and superintendent of schools for the
archdiocese.
“Regardless of who serves poor kids,
they have rights under the law.”
A spokesperson for LAUSD reiterated
a response issued when the California
Department of Education ruled against
the district in July:
“Los Angeles Unified strives to
comply with all applicable rules and
regulations regarding the provision of
Title I equitable services.”
The suit says that, after seeking a
resolution through administrative
channels for four years, the archdiocese
filed suit because “ADLA and the
students that attend its schools ... will
suffer irreparable harm if required to
wait up to a year or more on top of the
several years they had to wait for the
CDE’s decision. Low-income students
who grow up, year after year, without
the Title I services to which they are
entitled under law, cannot be made
whole four or more years later by extra
Title I services; by that point the damage
done by this unlawful withholding
of necessary services will have become
permanent[.]”
In a letter to school administrators,
Escala said the suit was filed after long
deliberation.
“We are clear eyed about the realities
of litigation and realize that a speedy
resolution is not assured, in fact, this
may necessitate more time. However,
the action we are taking is important
— advocacy for our students must be
represented in a firm and public manner,”
he wrote.
He continued that the litigation will
benefit archdiocesan schools outside
the territory of the LAUSD: “The ability
of Catholic schools in our Archdiocese
and other dioceses across the state
to access Federal resources to support
high-need students is at stake here and
the LAUSD is not the only district
in ADLA that has sought to undermine
our efforts to serve the poor and
struggling students through Federally
funded programs.”
Ann Rodgers is a longtime religion reporter
and freelance writer whose awards
include the William A. Reed Lifetime
Achievement Award from the Religion
News Association.
January 14, 2022 • ANGELUS • 19