Groups file suit to kill vouchers

One day after Jeb Bush signs the controversial school reform into law, the long legal battle begins.

By JO BECKER

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 23, 1999

TALLAHASSEE -- Prompting what could be a prolonged legal battle, critics of Florida's new school vouchers program filed a lawsuit Tuesday charging that it violates both the U.S. and state constitutions.

The lawsuit contends that the new program will hurt public schools and that it violates the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state. It was filed one day after Gov. Jeb Bush signed the program into law, launching the nation's most far-reaching voucher experiment.

"Florida schools are improving schools," said Pinellas County School Board member Linda Lerner, one of the lawsuit's plaintiffs. "Vouchers are not the answer -- the answer is give us adequate funds."

Both sides are vowing to take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary. Bush is planning to announce his legal team today.

"I don't think any substantial change in politics today can happen without a lawsuit," Bush said this week. "I am very confident that this will pass any test at the federal or state level."

But court decisions on voucher programs around the nation have been mixed. The U.S. Supreme Court recently handed voucher supporters an indirect victory by declining to hear a case out of Wisconsin, but the court has never issued a definitive ruling. However, voucher proponents have suffered recent defeats in both state and federal courts. (see chart)

The most controversial portion of Florida's so-called "A+

Plan," a sweeping education reform effort that is the major achievement of Bush's first year in office, gives vouchers to students at chronically failing public schools.

Students can use the "opportunity scholarships" to attend a private or religious school of their choice or another public school in their district. Students at two schools in Escambia County will be the only ones eligible for vouchers this year, but as the state toughens standards, thousands of students at troubled schools across Florida could eventually qualify.

The lawsuit does not ask the court to step in on an emergency basis to prevent the law from taking effect, but that move could be made later.

The lawsuit argues that using public money to support religious schools violates both the U.S. and state constitutions. Florida's constitution prohibits spending state revenue "directly or indirectly in aid of any church."

The A+

plan prohibits private schools that accept vouchers from compelling students "to profess a specific ideological belief, to pray or to worship." But the lawsuit contends that language does not go far enough because it does not prohibit private schools from compelling students to participate in other religious activities, such as religious training or instruction. The plan also does not prohibit private schools from spending public funds on religious purposes, the lawsuit argues.

"Don't take my tax dollars to support churches," said Sidney Goetz, of the anti-voucher group Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "You may wind up supporting the Church of Scientology -- a school run by them."

In addition, the suit contends, vouchers violate Florida's constitutional commitment to providing a free system of quality public schools. Voters last year amended the constitution to say that "adequate provision shall be made by law for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high quality system of free public schools that allows students to obtain a high quality education."

But proponents of the voucher plan have also pointed to that clause, saying it compels them to do anything in their power to improve education for children at failing schools -- including giving them vouchers.

Besides Lerner, those bringing the lawsuit include a Miami-Dade County School Board member, Citizens' Coalition for Public Schools, a teacher and the parents of three school children who attend Escambia County Schools, and the NAACP.

Leon Russell, the president of the Florida NAACP, charged Tuesday that a voucher system will encourage racial segregation.

"The children who remain at these (failing) schools would be doomed to second- and third-class education," Russell said. "The concept of choice is chilling."

Susan Watson, an Escambia parent whose children do not attend failing public schools, said they will still be hurt because Bush's plan will take money from the failing schools and give it to private schools.

"As funds are drawn away, they will have to be replaced," Watson said. "And they will come from schools that are striving."

But Carol Licko, general counsel to the governor, said that filing the lawsuit was "easy for these plaintiffs" because "none of them has a child in a failing school."

Licko said that most chronically failing schools are in poverty-stricken areas with high-percentage minority populations. Allowing those students to go to private schools that must accept all will lead to less, not more, segregation, Licko said.

Licko and other voucher proponents argue that Florida's plan does not violate the constitutionally required separation of church and state because public funds will go to parents, not directly to religious schools.

Both sides say it could take up to two years for the Florida Supreme Court to hear the case.

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