School Board Delays Vote on Settling Funding Suit

The Los Angeles Board of Education has postponed a vote scheduled for today on the proposed settlement of a lawsuit charging that the school system shortchanges its poor and minority students by spending less on their schools.

The settlement in the 5-year-old case--Rodriguez et al vs. the Los Angeles Unified School District--was to be presented in Superior Court on Friday. But Richard Mason, the school district’s attorney, said Wednesday that lawyers for the district and the plaintiffs will ask for a delay in the hearing.

Mason said both sides want more time to study changes proposed by employee unions and a group of parents, who are challenging the decree because they believe it will lead to mandatory teacher transfers and less funding for schools in middle-class neighborhoods.