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School Choice Movement
Wins Major Court Victory
Schundler Says That Cleveland Ruling Is A Big
Step
For School Choice In Jersey City
Press Release, August 7, 1996
Jersey City
Disadvantaged families can now have direct input into the educational future of their
children, thanks to an historic ruling by Judge Lisa J. Sadler of the Franklin County, Ohio
Court of Common Pleas. Sadler ruled that the Cleveland school voucher plan, which was
challenged by two Ohio teachers unions and the American Civil Liberties Union on federal and
state constitutional grounds, did not violate the Ohio State or the United States Constitution.
The ruling clears the way for nearly 2,000 young people to use public funds to defray the cost
of attending private and religious schools in the Fall of 1996.
"Judge Sadler's decision is a huge victory for the national school choice movement. Her
ruling may just be the impetus we need to implement serious education reform in Jersey City
and beyond, " Schundler said.
The Cleveland school voucher program would provide publicly-funded scholarships to low-income families who want to send their children to the private schools of their choice. While
opponents of Cleveland's voucher program argued that the pilot program violated
constitutional provisions guaranteeing the separation of church and state, Judge Sadler said
that because it was the parents who were choosing the schools, and not the state, no such
violation existed.
"Many legislators have not enacted school choice programs because they were not
confident that they would withstand legal challenge. This victory in Ohio may give a lot of
lawmakers a reason to take a second look at this important issue," Schundler said.
Mayor Schundler has pushed for the passage of state legislation which would enact a series of
education reforms throughout New Jersey, including: public school choice, the establishment
of charter schools, and the provision of tuition assistance, in the form of a voucher, to parents
who choose to send their children to secular and religious private schools.
Recently, Governor Christine Todd Whitman's Advisory Panel on School Vouchers has
recommended that the State of New Jersey adopt legislation which would allow one eligible
school district in each of the state's twenty-one counties to implement a tuition voucher pilot
program. The pilot programs would begin the first full school year following the enactment
of this legislation.
"Financial limitations force many parents in New Jersey to send their children to Public
Schools, whether or not they are satisfied with the services their children receive. It is time
that parents be given control over where their children go to school," Schundler said.
Attorneys for the Institute for Justice, which serves as legal defense for the Cleveland program,
say it is likely that the Ohio ruling will be appealed to a higher court. Lawyers for the teachers
unions say that such appeals are planned as are legal maneuvers to keep the program from
beginning this Fall while the matter is under appeal.
Ohio is the second state to create a school choice program. The first program, in Milwaukee,
is also under court challenge and goes to trial in Madison on August 15th.
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