Indiana’s constitution may get in the way of Franklin Township’s plans to balance its school budget. Plans to charge students for riding buses and playing sports are raising legal questions.
In Franklin Township, the plan to have students pay to ride school buses or participate in athletics may be unconstitutional.
Indiana’s Attorney General is researching and writing a legal opinion. Former lawmaker and law professor David Orentlicher already has one.
“Without legislative authorization you can’t charge for a bus and without legislative authorization you can’t charge to play on a school team,” said Orentlicher, a professor at IU School of Law.
His conclusion is based on a previous Supreme Court ruling. When Evansville tried to balance its school budget by charging each student $20, the court found the fee unconstitutional. In that case the money paid for teachers and other basics, not school buses.
The question before schools and left unanswered by the Supreme Court is precisely which instructional services are essential for that constitutionally guaranteed free public education.
“Once that student is on the bus, the school process has begun,” said Ken Falk, ICLU.
Falk represented parents in the Evansville case.
“If you ask most parents they would consider the ability of their child to get back and forth to school to be truly integral to the education and part of the educational process,” Falk said.
But in Speedway, students walk. Indiana law doesn’t require schools to provide buses. In a state where parents must pay for textbooks, its Supreme Court recognizes athletics as an integral part of a free education.
Orentlicher says the issue is “not as clear as we would like.”
Like it or not, Franklin Township may provide an answer for other schools to follow.
Franklin Township, which needs to save nearly $7 million, says it is very familiar with the Supreme Court decision and points out students aren’t required to ride the bus. Other school districts with financial problems will no doubt be watching if pay to play and ride is an option to consider to avoid. Indiana’s Attorney General plans to have legal opinion ready by mid-March.
from wthr.com
