State officials have asked a judge to throw out a lawsuit seek ing private school vouchers for families in low-performing school districts, arguing it would be an unconstitutional use of power.
State Attorney General Stuart Rabner's office filed a motion to dismiss the case, Crawford vs. Davy, calling the suit a "thinly disguised attempt to have the court legislate a school voucher system."
State Tries To Quash Lawsuit That Seeks School Vouchers
State officials have asked a judge to throw out a lawsuit seeking private school vouchers for families in low-performing school districts, arguing it would be an unconstitutional use of power.
State Attorney General Stuart Rabner's office filed a motion to dismiss the case, Crawford vs. Davy, calling the suit a "thinly disguised attempt to have the court legislate a school voucher system."
Separate motions and responses were also filed on behalf of at least 13 of the 25 districts initially named in the suit, including Jersey City, Elizabeth, Paterson, Bound Brook and Perth Amboy.
Led by the Crawford family of three boys who attend Malcolm X. Shabazz High School in Newark, the class-action suit filed in state Superior Court in July claims that an estimated 60,000 students in 96 "failing" schools have seen their constitutional rights violated and are entitled to attend successful schools of their choice, private or public.
The suit is backed by the state's leading voucher advocates, including the Black Ministers Council of New Jersey, the Latino Leadership Alliance, and Excellent Education for Everybody.
The state's motion seeks to dismiss the lawsuit on a number of grounds. For instance, it questioned the complaint's claim that a school can be deemed failing based on test scores alone. It also said the suit fails to account for the options or services currently available to students in these schools.
But the motion focuses on the court's role in ordering a policy such as school vouchers, which has been debated for more than a decade in New Jersey but never been even taken up by the Legislature.
"The plaintiffs are asking the court to step beyond these constitutional constraints by legislating school choice and, effectively, re-making the entire educational system without input from either legislators or voters," the brief states.
Yesterday, lawyers for the plaintiffs said the case's central point -- that the rights of some children are being violated -- has been lost in the controversy over vouchers.
© 2006 The Star-Ledger.
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