Attorney Says Florida Supremes Put Personal Preference Before Sound Legal Judgment
by Jim Brown
January 10, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A libertarian attorney believes the Florida Supreme Court's decision to outlaw Governor Jeb Bush's school-choice program was the work of five activist judges. The court ruled 5-2 last week that the nation's first statewide system that allows some children to attend private schools at taxpayer expense violates the Florida Constitution. That constitution requires a uniform system of free public schools.
Dick Komer is a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice, which represents families using Florida's Opportunity Scholarship program. He says Governor Bush may look to amend the state's corporate tax credit program, which currently caters to public school children only.
"I've also seen that the Governor's office and the legislature are talking about, actually, a constitutional amendment to change the educational article to make it clear that the public schools are not the only way to meet the mandate of an education for Florida schoolchildren," Komer shares.
The attorney says he believes the judgment of the five majority justices was clouded by their own visceral support for public schools. "And they saw this program as somehow undercutting the public schools," he asserts, "whereas in fact it's had a real reform stimulus on the public schools -- and it's improved the public schools. But ... I think [they] just let their own personal sort of preferences overrule what should have been their legal judgment."
The Florida Supreme Court's decision is stayed through the end of the academic school year. According to the Institute for Justice, Hispanic and African-American students made up 95 percent of the Opportunity Scholarship recipients this past school year. This ruling, says the Institute, could force hundreds of minority students back into the failing public schools they left.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
