Cathy Burner: Education Update -- Charter School Lawsuit

From: Joan Platz

Education Update for December 5, 2005

1) 126th General Assembly: The Ohio Senate will meet on December 6, 2005. The Ohio House is scheduled to meet again on December 13-14, 2005. Lawmakers are expected to complete work on several bills before recessing for the holidays, including HB 3 (DeWine) voter/election issues, HB 107 (Setzer) - teacher standards, and SB 236 (Carey) a bill introduced last week to implement Issue 1, which is the $2 billion bond package to support research and development projects in Ohio.

2) Charter School Lawsuit: The Ohio Supreme Court met on November 29, 2005 and heard oral arguments on the merits of a lawsuit, Ohio Congress of Parents & Teachers, et.al v. State Board of Education, et.al., regarding the constitutionality of Ohio's charter school program. The lawsuit was filed by several education organizations, the Ohio PTA, school districts, and the League of Women Voters of Ohio.

Don Mooney presented arguments for the plaintiffs. The defendants were represented by Deputy State Solicitor Stephen Carney and Chad Readilier, who represented several charter school that agreed to join as defendants.

During the hearing the Justices asked questions about the governance structure of charter schools and their accountability to the public, the method for funding schools, and why current laws regarding charter schools were unconstitutional. Ohio's charter school system includes 297 schools serving 66,000 students, and costs approximately $400 million this year. In briefs submitted to the Court the plaintiffs argued that charter school laws were unconstitutional because,

*Charter school laws violate the General Assembly's constitutional obligation to maintain a thorough and efficient system of common schools, and the Ohio Supreme Court's ruling in DeRolph II that, "Strict, statewide academic guidelines must be developed and rigorously followed throughout all of Ohio's public school districts." Currently charter schools are exempt from many state education rules and laws, including "Operating Standards for Ohio's Schools" which includes course and staffing requirements. Many charter schools are sponsored by for-profit companies, and are not accountable to an elected board of education or an elected official.

*The method used to fund charter schools violates Section 5 Article XII, Ohio Constitution which states, "No tax shall be levied, except in pursuance of law; and every law imposing a tax shall state, distinctly, the object of the same, to which only, it shall be applied."

*Charter school laws violate Section 4, Article VIII of the Ohio Constitution regarding extending the faith and credit of the state to private - for profit interests such as charter schools.

The defendants argued that charter schools are public schools because they are publicly funded, must accept all students, must follow state standards, must employ certified teachers, and don't charge tuition. Charter schools are accountable to the public through elected representatives in the Ohio General Assembly, and to parents, who will leave the schools if they are not satisfied.

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeifer tied his questions and comments to the unresolved DeRolph school funding case, in which the Ohio Supreme Court declared four times that Ohio's system of funding schools is unconstitutional. Justice Pfeifer stated that the legislature's response has been to tweak the system and ignore this court. The legislature has created another layer of schools that increases the reliance on property taxes for urban districts like Columbus, which is now forced to close 13 schools. Later he went on to ask if the Court were to decide that the system is unconstitutional, "would that make any difference to the legislature?"

Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer opined that the governance issue was the strongest argument, but asked what structure would be constitutional?

Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton noted that the constitution calls for schools in urban areas to be accountable to an elected board of education. Since charter schools are located in urban districts wouldn't that mean that they need an elected board?

Justice Maureen O'Connor also questioned why these schools are not public when they were created by the General Assembly?

Justices also asked if charter schools were accountable for meeting teaching, testing, and other state standards.

The lawsuit was first filed in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas in May 2001. Judge Patrick M. McGrath issued a ruling on April 21, 2003 in which four of the constitutional claims were dismissed, but allowed other claims that alleged that state officials had not enforced current laws governing charter schools. The plaintiffs appealed the dismissed constitutional issues to Ohio's 10th District Court of Appeals. That court issued a ruling on August 24, 2004 which sustained and reversed several of the constitutional issues dismissed by Judge McGrath. The plaintiffs then appealed that decision to the Ohio Supreme Court. The Ohio Supreme Court agreed on February 16, 2005 to hear the appeal. The Court could release its decision over the next six months.

3) This Week at the Statehouse:

*The Conference Committee on HB107, chaired by Representative Setzer, will meet on Tuesday, December 6, 2005 at 3:00 PM in room 018. HB 107 requires the State Board of Education to adopt standards that require the curricula of teacher preparation programs to be aligned with the state academic content standards and with the value-added progress dimension developed by the Department of Education; extends the deadline for the Department and the Educator Standards Board to propose a career ladder program for teachers; and sets aside $247,000 in each of fiscal years 2006 and 2007 for the Center for Learning Excellence at OSU.

*The Senate Education Committee, Senator Padgett chair, will meet on Tuesday, December 6, 2005 in the North Hearing room at 4:00 PM. The committee will hear testimony on HB 115 (Setzer) - Educational Regional Service System and the EMIS Advisory Board; SB 164 (Schuring) - student medications; SB 176 (Fedor) - community schools/ challenged school district; and SB 197 (Roberts) - community school payments.

4) Michigan's Merit Core increases graduation requirements: According to the National Art Education Association, the Michigan State Board of Education, Kathleen N. Straus president, will begin reviewing a set of more rigorous high school graduation requirements that includes completion of one year of fine arts, (music, visual art, or a theatre course). The recommendations were proposed by Michigan Superintendent Mike Flanagan at the Board's November 15, 2005 meeting as part of Michigan's Merit Core curriculum which includes the following:

-one year of fine arts, which may include music, art, or theater courses.
-four years of English language arts;
-one year each of Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, and an additional math class in the senior year;
-one year each of Biology; Physics or Chemistry; and one additional year of science;
-three years of social science, which must include a semester of civics and a semester of economics;
-one year of health or physical education; and electives.

Thirty-six states and the District of Columbia either require students to complete coursework in the arts or require students to select from a specified list of courses, which includes the arts, for high school graduation. If enacted, Michigan would be the 37th state. For more information visit http://www.naea-reston.org or the Michigan Department of Education's webpage: www.michigan.gov/highschool.

5) Bills introduced the week of November 28, 2005:

SB 236 (Carey) - Issue 1: Implements certain provisions of Article VIII, Section 2p of the Ohio Constitution regarding the issuance of obligations to support research and development projects and the development of certain sites and facilities, and makes an appropriation.

HB 438 (Wolpert) - School funding councils: Establishes a study council to examine the current cost-of-doing business factor used in calculating funding for school districts and community schools and make recommendations whether and in what form the factor should be modified.