Recent Cases

Resources

• Joyce v. State of Maine, No. 08-24 (Me. July 1, 2008) [HTML 5,204kb]
  The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has ruled a state statutory ban on using state funds for tuition payments to sectarian schools also bars a municipality from making such payments using general funds.
  
• Suit claims principal fired for supporting charter plan [HTML 1,852kb]
  The Los Angeles Times reports that Frank Wells, formerly principal of Locke High School (LHS), has filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) alleging district officials fired him after he threw his support behind a plan to turn over LHS, one of LAUSD’s lowest performing schools, to a charter school operator.
  
• CSBA v. CSBE, No. RG07353566 (Cal. Super. Ct. May 22, 2008) [HTML 3,418kb]
  The Alameda County Superior Court (trial level court) has dismissed a suit brought by the California School Boards Association (CSBA) seeking to overturn the California State Board of Education’s (CSBE) approval of Aspire Public Schools’ (APS) petition to operate a statewide charter school.
  
• Cain v. Horne, No. 07-0143 (Ariz. App. Div. Two, May 15, 2008) [HTML 5,710kb]
  An Arizona appeals court has struck down two state voucher programs, finding that although they do not violate the state constitution’s ban on funding religion, they do violate the constitution’s ban on taxpayer funding of private schools. The court found characterizations of the state constitution as tainted by “religious bigotry” irrelevant.
  
• P.A.C.E. v. Kansas City Mo. Sch. Dist., No. 06-3318 (Feb. 27, 2008) [HTML 3,971kb]
  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (AR, IA, MN, MO, ND, NE, SD) has struck down a Missouri law requiring the Kansas City Missouri School District (KCMSD) to use property tax revenue that was set aside to pay off court-ordered desegregation bonds to fund charter schools.
  
• Zager v. Chester Cmty. Charter Sch., No. J-39-2007 (Pa. Nov. 20, 2007) [HTML 4,203kb]
  The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled that a charter school is subject Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Act (RKA) and, therefore, required to disclose documents that fall within the law’s definition of public records.
  
• Crawford v. Davy, No. 137-06 (N.J. Super. Ct. Oct. 4, 2007) [HTML 6,455kb]
  A New Jersey trial court has dismissed a class action lawsuit brought on behalf students attending public schools that have failed to meet state standards and sought a court order providing the students with the meaningful of choice of allowing them to leave their “failing” schools to attend “successful” schools, either public or private.
  
• Page v. Lexington County Sch. Dist. One, 2007 WL 2123784 (slip copy D. S.C. July 20, 2007) [HTML 4,727kb]
  A U.S. district court in South Carolina has ruled that a school district did not violate a private school voucher advocate’s free speech rights by declining to link to his information on the district’s website or disseminate it in PTA newsletters.
  
• Basis School Inc. v. Horne, No. 07-011100 (Ariz. Super. Ct. Maricopa County Aug. 7, 2007) [HTML 2,115kb]
  The Maricopa County Superior Court has denied a preliminary injunction motion by a coalition of charter schools to prevent the State of Arizona from enforcing its social studies curriculum grade level requirements.
  
• Baltimore City Bd. of School Comm’rs v. City Neighbors Charter Sch. [HTML 2,852kb]
  The Maryland Court of Appeals, that state’s highest court, has ruled that charter schools are entitled under the state charter school statute to receive the same per pupil funding as is distributed to other schools in the school district.
  
• Snow v. Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel, No. 20070417 (June 8, 2007) [HTML 3,948kb]
  The Utah Supreme Court has ruled the recently enacted private school voucher law is subject to a voter referendum, and if that measure is defeated by the voters then a subsequent voucher measure passed by the legislature would also be without legal effect.
  
• Blount-Hill v. Bd. of Educ. of State of Ohio, No. 05-4354 (6th Cir. Sept. 5, 2006) [HTML 2,946kb]
  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has upheld a federal district court’s denial of the petition of White Hat Management, a professional education management firm, to intervene in a lawsuit challenging the Ohio’s Community Schools Act, which provides state funding for charter schools.
  
• Levi v. O’Connell, No. 05-1722 (Cal. App. Nov. 7, 2006) [HTML 3,695kb]
  A California appeals court has ruled that the California Department of Education (CDE) is not required under state or federal law to pay for the college education of an “extremely gifted” student under the age of 16.
  
• Ariz. State Bd. for Charter Schools v. U.S. Dept. of Educ., No. 05-17349 (9th Cir. Sept. 25, 2006) [HTML 4,184kb]
  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that only nonprofit elementary and secondary schools are eligible to receive funds under the federal Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).
  
• Ohio Congress of Parents and Teachers v. State of Ohio Board of Education, No. 06-5512 (Ohio Oct. 25, 2006) [HTML 4,450kb]
  The Ohio Supreme Court has dismissed all constitutional challenges to the state’s law authorizing establishment and operation of “community,” or charter, schools.
  
• Anderson v. Town of Durham, No. 04-591 (Me. Apr. 26, 2006) [HTML 3,539kb]
  The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that the state’s tuition payment statute, which allows school districts that do not operate a public high school to provide public funds for students to attend private, nonsectarian high schools, does not violate the U.S. Constitution’s First and Fourteenth Amendments.
  
• Holmes v. Bush, No. 04-2323 (Fla. Jan. 5, 2006) [HTML 5,772kb]
  In a 5-2 decision, the Florida Supreme Court has ruled that the state's Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP), a private school voucher program, violates the Florida constitution's requirement that the state provide "a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools."
  
• Racine Charter One, Inc. v. Racine Unified School District, No. 05-1003 (7th Cir. Sept. 22, 2005) [HTML 4,100kb]
  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has ruled that a Wisconsin school district did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause when it refused to bus students to an independent charter school located within the school district.
  
• Bush v. Holmes, Nos. 02-3160/3163/3199 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. August 16, 2004) [HTML 2,522kb]
  Following an en banc rehearing, the entire Florida Court of Appeals for the First District has withdrawn its previous decision by a three-judge panel on the question of whether Florida’s private school voucher program violates the state constitutional provision that prohibits the use of public funds to "directly or indirectly [aid] any sectarian institution" and issued an en banc ruling to the same effect.
  
• Eulitt v. State of Maine, No. 04-1496 (1st Cir. October 22, 2004) [HTML 2,906kb]
  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has ruled that Maine’s law allowing local school districts to satisfy their statutory duty to provide all school-aged persons with "an opportunity to receive the benefits of a free public education" by paying tuition expenses for students attending nonsectarian private schools, but not sectarian schools, does not violate students’ Fourteenth Amendment equal protection rights.