Lawsuit Challenges Adequacy Of Education In Florida

August 30, 2010

A circuit court judge has ruled that a parents group can continue with a court challenge of the state’s education system, rejecting a request by the Legislature to throw the suit out.

The lawsuit, filed by a coalition of groups called “Fund Education Now” that includes parents of school children, argues that the government is violating the state constitution by failing to adequately pay for “high quality” public schools.

The Legislature asked Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford to dismiss the challenge to the law, saying that lawmakers have the absolute discretion to implement the details of the education system within constitutional parameters and the courts don’t have any role in interpreting how it is doing that. A big issue in whether the education system is adequate is how much money goes into it, and legislators argued they have sole budgeting authority.

The Legislature cited a 1996 case in which the court found that “blanket assertions” against the education system can’t be ruled on by the courts – essentially saying that it was impossible to argue in court whether something is “adequate,” which would be in the eye of the beholder. They also argued that the matter basically involves a political question.

But Fulford denied the motion to dismiss, and a challenge to the plaintiffs’ standing, saying that the groups weren’t merely making blanket assertions, but providing a series of specific allegations about the weakness of the state’s education system and how it is funded.

She also said that since 1996 – when a court rejected a similar lawsuit alleging schools were inadequate, saying the wording was vague – voters have added Article 9 to the state constitution, which was put into the constitution exactly to provide standards to measure the education system.

The plaintiffs argued that the system has all kinds of deficiencies that directly violate the new article.

“Defendants argue that these deficiencies cannot be reviewed by any court,” Fulford wrote. “Ultimately, their position is that the judiciary has no role in interpreting Article 9 and that the Legislature has absolute discretion to implement any system, checked only by the ballot box. This conclusion renders the citizens’ vote to create a new education article as meaningless and this provision as a nullity.”

On the issue of whether the parents and others in the group have standing to challenge the law, Fulford said they do.

“The directors and members of the two (groups) are Florida citizens and taxpayers and are parents of children attending Florida public schools,” Fulford wrote. “They would have standing as individuals; thus, they have standing as an association.”

A spokeswoman for the House said leaders there wouldn’t have any comment because the lawsuit is still in the courts.

Fulford hasn’t set a trial date in the case and gave the Legislature 20 days to file a response to the plaintiffs’ complaint.

Comments

2 Responses to “Lawsuit Challenges Adequacy Of Education In Florida”

  1. David Huie Green on August 31st, 2010 10:22 am

    REGARDING:
    “The Florida lottery was promoted on the notion that it would fund education, and how long did it take them to direct most of that money to the general fund ”

    The lottery money funds education. The trick is that the legislature stopped funding as much from the general fund. The result is the same but the gyrations should have been expected and obvious.

    Funding education was just an excuse to institute a lotter, a tax on fools they say. The money which would have gone into the active economy, buying and selling, now goes through the government first and is redirected according to political motives.

    Same old same old.

    David thinking it’s all educational

  2. anydaynow on August 30th, 2010 12:11 pm

    I am happy to read about this group of citizens challenging the Florida legislature’s failure to govern to the benefit of the citizens they are elected to serve. Time and again, year after year, our state government has served the interests and benefit of the corporations of this state to the detriment of the citizens of the state and in violation of their designated purpose. Many of them, seemingly the majority of them, don’t “believe” in public education and don’t want to contribute to it’s funding. They don’t “believe” in aiding the poor and they don’t want to contribute to their health care. They don’t “believe” in regulating business, or in taxing businesses. They “believe” in “market forces” even though we can all see very clearly that just ain’t working out for any but the very few. The Florida lottery was promoted on the notion that it would fund education, and how long did it take them to direct most of that money to the general fund so they didn’t have to take their due responsibility and tell the public the truth about taxes…if you want fresh water, municipal sewer systems, highways, and all those wonderful things we have to raise the money to do so. They did the same thing with the tobacco settlement money which was to be used to provide health care to those whose health was damaged from smoking, they put that money in the general fund. Now, let’s see what they do with the Race to the TOP money.
    I fully support the efforts of this group of concerned citizens and parents.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News