LANSING (WKZO-AM/FM) — Statewide educational groups, the ACLU and Kalamazoo Public Schools have jointly filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of a provision in this year’s state budget that would reimburse private schools for state-mandated costs.
The suit was announced this morning in Lansing.
The state constitution bans the use of state tax dollars to fund private schools. Republican lawmakers set aside $2.5 million to test that ban by applying it to costs the schools would not have otherwise incurred if not for state regulation. Kalamazoo Public Schools Supt. Michael Rice said it’s a camel sticking his nose in the tent. He said, if they don’t challenge it, then next year it will be the whole camel.
“It’s $2.5 million this year, if we let it go it will be $25 million next year and it’s a quarter of a billion dollars in the following year,” Rice said.
Rice said public schools are not separately reimbursed for these costs, but are required to follow the state mandates. He said restaurants aren’t reimbursed for preparing for inspections and adhering to regulations. Why should private schools be singled out?
He said public schools are already underfunded, and while that continues, they “can’t permit funding to be siphoned off for private schools.”
No money has been allocated yet. They will ask the claims court judge for an injunction blocking any state payment to a private school until the legal process is exhausted or one side or the other throws in the towel.
Gov. Rick Snyder also had questions about the constitutionality of the provision and last year asked the State Supreme Court for an expedited opinion on the funding question. The justices declined, setting up this court challenge.
The Kalamazoo School Board authorized joining the suit at their last meeting. They aren’t alone. Also signing on as plaintiffs: the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, the Michigan Association of School Administrators, Michigan Association of School Boards, Michigan School Business Officials, Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators, Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association, Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals, Middle Cites Education Association, and the Council of Organizations and Others for Education About Parochiaid.
