Posted 10:02 AM by Susan Darst Williams

USING THE COURTS TO GET WHAT WE WANT

A Georgia father has filed a lawsuit against that state asking that its education system be declared unconstitutional. The reason behind his lawsuit reminds me of the exodus of middle-class kids from the Omaha Public Schools through option enrollment, which is now under review in our Legislature to be shut off. Well, if schools and legislatures won’t help parents find acceptable schooling for their children, maybe it’s time to seek relief from the courts, like this Georgia father did. Maybe it’s time for some monkey-see, monkey-do in Nebraska.

Dana Williams said the public school his 7-year-old daughter was attending has closed. He'd like to put her in a better school, but doesn't have the money to pay for private schools. He also said he can't afford to move to a better neighborhood. So he turned to the courts.

"I want to be able to make a choice in what school my child goes to," he explained, "and not be told what school she has to go to."

The suit asks that Georgia's system of organizing and financing public education be declared unconstitutional and a new structure that includes parental choice – chiefly the ability to direct the destination for the educational financing allocated for their children -- take its place, according to attorney Clint Bolick of the Alliance for School Choice.

See their website, www.allianceforschoolchoice.org complete with some interesting model legislation.