ACLU News 03-12-97: Community Renewal Act, Education, And More (fwd)
Rini C.
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03-12-97
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TODAY'S NEWS:
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* Radical Policy Initiatives Hidden Behind Laudable Goals in
Community Renewal Act
* Louisiana Education Funding Lawsuit Dismissed; ACLU to Appeal to
State Supreme Court
* ACLU of South Carolina Adds Staff Counsel
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Radical Policy Initiatives Hidden Behind
Laudable Goals in Community Renewal Act
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, March 12, 1997
WASHINGTON -- Responding to the reintroduction of the Community Renewal Act,
the American Civil Liberties Union today cautioned that hidden behind the
legislation's laudatory goals are a series of radical policy initiatives
that, if adopted, would drain some of the nation's poorest public schools of
their funding.
The ACLU also said that the legislation would also force local and state
governments to give tax dollars to churches, synagogues and other religious
institutions to provide drug counseling and drug rehabilitation programs even
if the programs are heavily religious in nature.
"Rather than solving the serious funding problems in the nations poorest
school districts, the Community Renewal Act would exacerbate them by
siphoning off tax dollars from the public schools to subsidize private,
religious schools," said Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU's National
Washington Office.
Murphy added that the community renewal bill is, in many ways, the
codification of the Christian Coalition's agenda that was announced with
great fanfare here in January. That agenda called for the removal of
"obstacles" that currently keep religious organizations from receiving
government funds.
"The obstacles that the sponsors of the Community Renewal Act would so easily
brush aside are nothing less than Constitution," Murphy said. "We can
understand why the Christian Coalition would be so eager to dismiss our laws
and traditions to further its agenda, but we are dismayed that the
legislations co-sponsors, all of them elected officials who swore to uphold
the Constitution, are so willing to follow along."
Senators Spencer Abraham, R-Michigan, and Joseph Lieberman, D-Connecticut,
are the primary co-sponsors of the legislation in the Senate. In the House,
the bill is being co-sponsored by Representatives J.C. Watts, R-Oklahoma;
Floyd H. Flake, D-New York, and James Talent, R-Missouri.
One major section of the legislation would require all renewal communities to
set up a school voucher scheme, deceptively titled "scholarships" in the
legislation.
The ACLU has long criticized voucher schemes, saying that they would
undermine public education and violate the Constitution's Establishment
clause, which prohibits the use of taxpayer dollars to fund sectarian
institutions.
In fact, the ACLU said that many state constitutions -- including those of
the home states of two of the bill's primary sponsors, Oklahoma and Missouri
-- contain explicit prohibitions on the use of public funds for sectarian
purposes.
The American public is also wary of voucher schemes. Polling shows that the
public is overwhelmingly opposed to using money spent on public education to
help parents pay for private or religious schools.
"Rather than renewing the inner cities," Murphy said, "the legislation
introduced today would leave the vast majority of public school children with
no hope and no opportunity."
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Louisiana Education Funding Lawsuit Dismissed;
ACLU to Appeal to State Supreme Court
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, March 12, 1997
NEW ORLEANS -- A Louisiana appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by
the American Civil Liberties Union that seeks to enforce children's
constitutional rights to an adequate education in Louisiana public schools.
The case was set for a nine-day trial beginning March 13.
The Court gave no reason for its decision. The ACLU immediately said it would
appeal the decision to the Louisiana Supreme Court.
"We look forward to arguing this case before the Louisiana Supreme Court,"
said William P. Quigley, General Counsel of the Louisiana ACLU. "This will be
on of the most important cases ever to go before the Court. The future of our
state hangs in the balance.
"Each child in Louisiana has the right under the Louisiana Constitution to a
decent public school education, and enforcement of this right is critical to
the economic future of our state," Quigley added.
The lawsuit, brought five years ago by the ACLU and the Orleans Parish School
Board, seeks to enforce the guarantees in Louisiana's Constitution that say
every child is entitled to a "minimum foundation of education." The suit
alleges that the state has failed to comply with its constitutional duty to
provide Louisiana's schoolchildren with an adequate education.
"We have documented in many Louisiana public schools appalling conditions
that are the direct result of the state's failure to comply with its
constitutional duty to supply local school boards with adequate funding,"
said Martha J. Kegel, Staff Counsel of the Louisiana ACLU. "Many children are
going to schools so poorly funded that the children don't have pencils, paper
and textbooks. The buildings are so badly in need of repair that roofs are
falling down, ceilings are leaking, and walls are crumbling.
"The schools catch on fire because of old and faulty wiring," Kegel
continued. "Desks and chairs are broken; playground equipment is broken or
non-existent. The bathrooms are unusable. In the northern part of the state,
some schools suffer from such inadequate heating that children must wear
mittens, coats and hats in the classroom in winter. Many classrooms lack air
conditioning and get unbearably hot in the spring and early fall.
"Because of inadequate funding, children are in many cases being taught by
uncertified teachers and in crowded classrooms where students cannot get the
individual attention they need to succeed," Kegel concluded.
Louisiana has the highest high school drop out rate in the nation. A majority
of Louisiana school children do not pass national reading exams administered
in the fourth grade and national math exams administered in the eighth grade.
Most school districts in Louisiana have joined in the ACLU's lawsuit to
increase state funding of schools. Some of the districts intervened on the
side of the plaintiffs, and others filed a separate lawsuit that was
consolidated with the ACLU lawsuit.
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ACLU of South Carolina Adds Staff Counsel
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, March 12, 1997
COLUMBIA, SC -- The ACLU of South Carolina announced that attorney Carl A.
"Andy" Brumme III has joined the organization as staff counsel.
A 1976 graduate of Bowling Green University in Bowling Green, Ohio, Brumme
received his law degree from the University of South Carolina in 1987 after
working several years in private industry. While in law school, he served a
year as a legal intern with the ACLU of South Carolina.
Subsequent to graduation, Brumme worked in the Columbia law offices of
Woodward, Leventis, Unger, Ormand & Herndon before moving to the Lexington
office of Palmetto Legal Services where he served six years as a staff
attorney.
"It has long been a dream of mine to work as a lawyer for a civil rights
organization," Brumme said. "Being chosen to work for an organization as
nationally renown as the ACLU is a dream come true."
The American Civil Liberties Union defends and promotes principles of liberty
guaranteed by the Bill of Rights through public education, legislative
lobbying, and litigation. Since its founding in 1968, the South Carolina
affiliate of the National American Civil Liberties Union has traditionally
relied on attorneys in private practice to represent clients in civil rights
claims against the government.
"We are excited to finally have a full-time attorney on our staff," ACLU of
South Carolina Executive Director Steven Bates said in announcing the
appointment. "Andy will be a tremendous asset to the organization. His
presence will make it possible for us to work more closely with the private
bar to address many more civil liberties issues and provide assistance to
many more people."
The position, funded for three years, was made possible by a bequest from the
estate of former Clemson Biology Professor Ray Rutledge and his wife Muriel
who both died in 1984, Bates said.
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