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There's disappointing news from the Indiana Supreme Court regarding Bonner v. Daniels, the class-action suit alleging the state does not meet its constitutional obligation to provide a "general and uniform" public education system.
Marcia Oddi at Indianalawblog.com reports the state's highest court has dismissed the lawsuit.
"We conclude that the framers and ratifiers certainly sought to establish a state system of free common schools but not to create a constitutional right to be educated to a certain quality or other output standard," states the majority opinion.
Put simply: We believe the state's founders wanted to establish schools, but they didn't intend for all of them to be good schools.
The decision means the gap between the haves and the have-nots in Indiana public schools will continue. The governor's budget proposal is another nail in the coffin for struggling school districts. According to Niki Kelly's story today, Gary schools will be cut by 10 percent while the wealthy Hamilton Southeastern district will enjoy a 13 percent increase.
The governor's argument that districts losing enrollment don't need as many teachers and administrators is not true and never has been. Students don't leave schools in neat groups of 28 third-graders, allowing a school to eliminate one third-grade teacher. Enrollment drops by a two or three students per classroom, leaving school districts with few options.
Furthermore, to suggest that it costs the same to educate a child from a low-income, non-English-speaking family of immigrants as a child from an upper-middle-class family is ludicrous.
ISTA is getting some bad press these days for financial dealings unrelated to its core functions. While the bad press might be warranted with regard to those matters, the statewide teachers union deserves credit for stepping up and pursuing the funding lawsuit. In fact, ISTA was the only organization willing to do so. Equity lawsuits in other states -- where they have a generally good record of success -- have been largely driven by groups of public education proponents.
Where are they in Indiana? Why was ISTA standing alone here?
