Sharon McCloskey and Lindsay Wagner of NC Policy Watch here fill in the key details of today’s voucher decision.
Judge Robert Hobgood pulled no punches:
“In a stunning rebuke to state lawmakers’ efforts to bring school vouchers to North Carolina, Wake County Superior Court Judge Robert Hobgood today found the recently-enacted “Opportunity Scholarship Program” unconstitutional and permanently enjoined disbursement of state funds for that purpose.
“The General Assembly fails the children of North Carolina when they are sent with public taxpayer money to private schools that have no legal obligation to teach them anything,” Hobgood said.”
He added:
“In his ruling today Hobgood recognized the state’s obligation to provide a “sound basic education” to the children attending public schools in North Carolina as mandated by the Supreme Court in its Leandro decision .
“The General Assembly cannot constitutionally delegate this responsibility to unregulated private schools by use of taxpayer opportunity scholarships to low income parents who have self-assessed their children to be at risk,” he said.
“Hobgood noted that the private schools receiving the scholarships are not subject to any requirements or standards regarding the curriculum that they teach, have no requirements for student achievement, are not obligated to demonstrate any growth in student performance and are not even obligated to provide a minimum amount of instructional time.”
The state argued that the $10 million for vouchers was not taken from public school funds. The judge rejected that claim, saying: ““Follow the money,” the judge added. “The clear legislative intent is to utilize taxpayer money to fund private schools.”
Judge Hopgood also wrote:
““It appears to this court that the General Assembly is seeking to push at-risk students from low income families into non-public schools in order to avoid the cost of providing them a sound basic education in public school as mandated by the Leandro decision,” he said.
“Parents who intervened in the case, represented by the Koch Brothers-backed law firm Institute for Justice, did move forward with an appeal of Hobgood’s order, contending that they would be harmed by the court’s delay of the voucher program’s implementation.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Hooray for judge Hobgood! He is absolutely right, and I hope other courts support his decision and follow his course.
“The General Assembly cannot constitutionally delegate this responsibility to unregulated private schools by use of taxpayer opportunity scholarships to low income parents who have self-assessed their children to be at risk,” he said.
““It appears to this court that the General Assembly is seeking to push at-risk students from low income families into non-public schools in order to avoid the cost of providing them a sound basic education in public school as mandated by the Leandro decision,” he said.
Beautiful.
Judges are the most skeptical people in the world, and there’s a reason for that.
They’re always on the alert for shirkers and relinquishers and dodgers, because they encounter a lot of them! 🙂
“Do your JOB, lawmakers”
Good on you Judge Hobgood!
How reassuring to know there is at least one judge in this country who is more interested in justice than proximidity to billionaires!
Wish a judge in IN had stood up for public education.
If there is not enough money to adequately fund the standard public schools, there is no extra money to fund theme schools for small groups who want to isolate themselves from everyone else.
“Parents who intervened in the case, represented by the Koch Brothers-backed law firm Institute for Justice, did move forward with an appeal of Hobgood’s order…”
It’s obvious—-once again—that the U.S. democratic public schools are in a war with a few billionaire oligarchs who have political/religoius/greed based agendas.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
He got it right … for all the right reasons.
North Carolina isn’t the only state trying to shed the expense of educating some of its more difficult cases by establishing its own “charter” schools. In Florida some counties have established their own special education charter schools. While I can’t prove it, I would suspect it is an attempt to circumvent the laws, regulations and expense associated with the education of special needs students. Florida has also privatized many prisons for the same reasons. The lawsuits about the inhumane treatment of prisoners are just starting hit the courts, and some of the privately run youth detention facilities are quietly closing after an investigation.
Lawmakers dodging their responsibilities and shifting funds away from less powerful constituencies and towards powerful constituencies who lobby them heavily and don’t want to pay taxes?
No one could have ever predicted THAT would happen. I’m shocked.
Yet many in the constituencies that get shafted will still vote these people in. Or not vote at all.
Originally, an income of over $70,000 would qualify a family of four for vouchers, when they got criticized for that, they lowered the income cap considerably. Some critics feel the law would be amended in the future until there is no income limit.
There are a few groups who advocate for low income families who are pushing hard for vouchers.
NCAE had a big part in this case. Congrats to them.
yes.
This notion never dawned on me, but how true! “It appears to this court that the General Assembly is seeking to push at-risk students from low income families into non-public schools in order to avoid the cost of providing them a sound basic education in public school as mandated by the Leandro decision,” he said.
Lastly, the Koch brothers will shell out more money to the parents who intervened. Why doesn’t the Koch family set up a non-profit of its own Koch-Opportunity-Scholarshiops, and donate directly to these and similar parents, who can then totally afford to go to any school that will accept their children? No, Koch would not do that; they’d rather “philanthropically” lobby for charters and vouchers to be paid by public taxes, and fund suits like this and tenure attacks in the courts.
This line totally blows me away: “Parents who intervened in the case, represented by the Koch Brothers-backed law firm Institute for Justice, did move forward with an appeal of Hobgood’s order, contending that they would be harmed by the court’s delay of the voucher program’s implementation.”
I just that that voila moment. Koch, Gates, Broad, Rhee, Brown, et al, and all of the “benefactors” that I missed SHOULD SET UP THEIR OWN SCHOLARSHIPS and directly give money to the needy children they seek to save. But, there’s no profit in that, is there??????
I swear you could not make this stuff up:
“DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – Kimberly King, owner of Oxford Academy in Delray Beach, like many other, was left in the dark when a brand new charter school mysteriously closed their doors after the first day of school.
She arrived at Champs Charter School to pick up a student who was enrolled in her aftercare program.
But when she arrived, she was shocked with what she found.
“We picked him up 2:45, they were talking down signs and putting them in their cars,” said King. “There was so sign that they were ever there.”
Champs Charter School gave the students a letter – on plain, white paper, with no signature – that read:
“It is with our deepest regret, due to unforeseen circumstances, Champs Charter Schools of Delray Beach and Riviera Beach will be unable to open for the Fall of 2014-2015.”
CBS 12 went to the principal to get answers.
She refused.
But a teacher of the school reached out exclusively to CBS 12 and told us she and the other teachers were notified at 2 P.M. Monday that they no longer had jobs.
According to the teacher, who wishes to remain anonymous, school executives told them “There is no money. You will not be paid.”
Champs opened two locations Monday for the 2014 school year – both of which are now closed.
After we learned of the mysterious closing, we tried their website and tried calling.
The website, which was operating Sunday night, was down and the phone line disconnected.”
Now I need more info on this “Oxford Academy” which is apparently “owned” by an individual 🙂
http://www.cbs12.com/news/top-stories/stories/local-parents-shocked-after-charter-school-closes-after-first-day-classes-18597.shtml?wap=0#.U-vozBWmjNQ.twitter
The torch of American democracy still burns in spite of the efforts of the sinister billionaire oligarchs who seek the destruction of our public education system for their own personal and selfish motives…Thank you, Judge Hobgood, for defending the values that have made the United States the defender of the free world, in spite of the evils now being perpetuated by domestic enemies who should be banned from using their wealth and privilege to harm our great nation.