A state judge will decide within 30 days whether a class-action suit seeking to give students in failing schools the right to use public funds to attend a different school can proceed in Superior Court.
School choice advocates filed suit, Crawford v. Davy, in July against Education Commissioner Lucille Davy, 25 school districts and various state officials.
Lawyers for the state and local school districts argued Tuesday that the suit asks Superior Court Judge Neil H. Shuster to be „a Legislature of one“ and implement a school choice or voucher program — something advocates haven’t been able to get the Legislature to do.
But lawyers who filed the suit countered that requiring children to attend failing schools deprives them of their right to an education.
„No matter how they try to slice it, what they are really seeking from the court is a remedy from the court because they don’t like the remedies that already exist, and they want a voucher program,“ said Michelle Miller, a senior deputy attorney general representing the state Department of Education.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs said children can no longer afford to wait for educators to figure out how to improve schools that continually have a majority of students fail the state’s standardized tests.
„Plaintiffs have a right like all other children in the state of New Jersey to go to a good school,“ lawyer Julio Gomez said. „And unlike other children in the state of New Jersey, they don’t get that right. They’re forced to go to bad schools. That is dissimilar treatment of people who are similarly situated.“
Richard Shapiro, a lawyer for eight of the named districts, said the suit is a thinly veiled attempt to get a voucher program that was never approved by the Legislature and governor. He said the suit does not ask the courts to review a statute or have one enforced.
„They’re not seeking a review of anything, they’re seeking a judicial assessment of the educational scheme in New Jersey,“ Shapiro said.