Parents kept out of lawsuit challenging Louisiana’s charter schools
A Louisiana teachers union can join a lawsuit challenging state funding for Louisiana charter schools, but parents of children attending these schools may not participate.
This is according to a ruling this month from the 19th Judicial District Court for the Parish of East Baton Rouge.
The Louisiana Association of Educators, a teachers union, joined the Iberville Parish School District late last year in the district’s lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of state-based funding for charter schools.
The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, which provides the funding for charter schools, is the primary defendant in the case.
The trial is scheduled to start Monday.
Members of the LAE and the school district say charter schools, one of which is located in Iberville Parish, take away their rightful share of state-based money meant for the district.
Both parties are asking the court to declare that state funding of charter schools goes against the language of the state constitution.
Parents of two sets of children attending charter schools, along with representatives of Public School Options, a Washington, D.C.-based parent advocacy group, criticized the court keeping them out of the suit in a recent press release.
Contact information for one parent, Jennette Franklin, was seemingly unavailable.The other parent, Christin Kaiser, did not respond to a request for comment on her personal Facebook page.
A representative for Public School Options chose not to speak on the record, but provided Louisiana Watchdog with a copy of their motion to intervene, which appears Parents kept out of lawsuit challenging Louisiana’s charter schools « Watchdog.org:
