Category Archives: Lawsuits

Washington’s Charter Shell Game and Another Lawsuit

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justiceThe League is in a new lawsuit in the state of Washington.  Charters were approved by the voters in 2012, but the League of Women Voters called the move unconstitutional.  The Charter School Case filed by the League et al in 2013 was appealed all the way to the state’s Supreme Court.  In 2015, the Court ruled that charter schools violated the Washington constitution.  Charters were not public schools.  In order for the legislature to fund charters, they must be governed by elected school boards, and of course, they were not.

The  legislature was not deterred.

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Third Grade Retention Law Under Scrutiny

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FAILED1The State Board of Education (SBE) was asking questions about third grade retention policies.  The general understanding was that students who scored a ‘level 1’ on the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) would be retained unless there was a good cause exemption.

There is more to this than meets the eye.

 

 

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Judge Supports Third Grade Opt Out Parents

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justiceJudge Gievers ruled in favor of parents who claimed that their districts unfairly retained third graders solely because they did not complete the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA).  The ruling revealed gaping holes in district procedures and in law.  The arguments brought into question the reliance on the FSA to determine student competence.

 

 

 

 

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Florida Court: Remedy is at the polls

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justiceA Florida Appeals court refused to hear the lawsuit against the Florida tax credit voucher program.  Judge Lori Rowe argued that current law supporting tax credits was different from the previous law against direct payments from the legislature to private schools.  Now, the legislature allows corporations to give money owed to the state to private schools.  Somehow this is legal according to the 1st District Court of Appeals.

In the opinion, the judges’ opinion stated that it was not clear that the public schools were hurt by the loss of tax credit funding.  There was no guarantee that the legislature would have allocated the money to public schools if it had decided to collect it.

The judge added:  …”the remedy is at the polls”.  We will have to wait to see if the Florida Education Association will appeal to the Florida Supreme Court once again.  In the meantime, an election is coming.

 

Closing Florida’s Public Schools is NOT an Option

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ballot-32201_1280The Washington State Superintendent of Schools argues that it may be necessary to close public schools to force the state to comply with the court ruling on funding education.  Could this happen in Florida?  It may be up to the voters even if the Southern Legal Counsel (SLC) wins the Citizens for Strong Schools lawsuit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Today the Value of Diversity Was Affirmed

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justiceAll the money pouring into school choice helps hire professionals to give a positive spin to a poor idea.  What can be wrong with giving parents choice and take state dollars with them to charter and private schools, spin masters say.

Some parents cannot resist the allure of a selective quasi ‘private education’ even if it is not high quality.  Today the Supreme Court provided a compelling ruling that can change the conversation.

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Charter Schools Back in Court

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justicePalm Beach County Schools say ‘NO’ to Charter Schools USA (CSUSA) and duplicative, inefficient school choice.  This is more than an anti charter complaint.  It is a call to enforce the original legislative purpose for charter schools in Florida.

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Southern Legal Counsel Plans Appeal

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justiceIt is a marathon in the Citizens for Strong Schools case.
Attorneys for the Southern Legal Counsel issued a statement regarding Judge Reynold’s ruling in the Citizens for Strong Schools vs. the Florida State Board of Education et al. The judge ruled for the State.  Basically, the ruling will be appealed.  This is no surprise; it would have been appealed regardless of which side won.
SLC issued the following statement:
“Today, the Second Judicial Circuit Court issued an order that ignores the overwhelming weight of the evidence that the public education system in Florida is failing more than a million students. Even though Florida’s constitution is the strongest educational mandate of all the states, the court incorrectly concluded that the constitution has no judicially manageable standards and that the court is prohibited from ordering relief due to separation of powers.  Southern Legal Counsel plans to appeal this decision and continue to seek a high quality education for all children in Florida”.
The final judgment considered the claims and counter claims over the constitutionality of the Florida educational system.  Highlights include:
  • Judge Reynolds ruled that the State has made education a top priority in terms of funding.  Moreover, he states that neither the defendants or the plaintiffs established the connection between the amount of resources and educational outcomes.
  • The Differentiated Accountability system needed legislative attention.   The fact that schools could remain in ‘F’ status over a number of years was the judge’s primary objection to the state system.  He argued, however, that the defendant’s own evidence showed that a school could be turned around without additional funding.
  • Districts were part of the state system.  Districts had control over local management and funding allocations and the State was not responsible for ineffective local management.
  • The constitutionality of school choice was dismissed by the judge.  He did not agree that charters and tax credit funded private schools had a negative effect on the system.
  • Judge Reynolds wrote:  “The evidence shows that many of Florida’s educational policies and programs are subject to ongoing debate without any definitive consensus in the education community.  They are political questions best resolved in the political arena”, and
  • “The Plaintiffs seek a declaratory judgement without a judicially manageable or enforceable remedy.”  In other words, the cost study sought by the Plaintiffs was not a remedy.
While Judge Reynolds did concede that there were areas of concern in the Florida educational system, they did not rise to the level of constitutional violation.  This was a David vs. Goliath case.  It was reported that the State spent over two million dollars on its side while Southern Legal Counsel’s expenses were around $600,000.  SLC has to raise funds from donations while the State uses tax payer funds.  Going forward, Florida citizens will need to help equalize the balance.

A Charter School Sues Itself?

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money-40603_1280Have you ever known something did not smell right, but you could not find the source?  A court in Missouri found it.

In Renaissance Academy for Math and Science vs. Imagine Schools, the court ruled there was hidden self dealing.  The judge fined Imagine Schools one million dollars.  This was just one school in trouble in St. Louis,  Missouri at the time.  Thirty-five hundred children had to be relocated when all Imagine charters were forced to close in St. Louis.

We all need to know how this can happen.  It is not unusual.

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