News Alert
(May 15, 1996) Jeanne Allen, founder and president of the Center for Education Reform, today announced the Center has filed an Amicus Brief with the Franklin County, Ohio Common Pleas Court in support of the Cleveland school choice program.
"This is an important case, for underprivileged families in Cleveland specifically, and for countless other families who have no choice save for often-failing schools," Allen said. "The Center's Amicus Brief is a way of supporting, in practice and theory, the advantages of school choice for poor children.
"We are delighted to have among the amici such prominent institutions as the National Federation of Independent Business, The Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association, the Minnesota Business Partnership and a dozen other interest groups and individuals. It shows just how broad the support for choice has become," Allen said.
The Ohio Pilot Project Scholarship Program (PPSP), which would provide publicly funded assistance to low-income Cleveland families to allow them to send their children to private and parochial schools of their choice, is being challenged by the Ohio Education Association (the labor union that represents Ohio's teachers) and by the American and Ohio Civil Liberties Unions. The Washington DC-based Institute for Justice is representing the defendants in the case.
"PPSP no more violates the Constitution's separation of church and state provisions than public assistance programs that allow college-level students to attend the school of their choice," Allen said. "It's a simple matter of recognizing the compelling need for a child to be in a school that best meets his or her needs versus a labor union trying to protect its turf despite parental concerns."
The Center's 29 page brief argues in favor of PPSP on three critical issues: that "parental choice is critical to the education of low-income children," that the program "enables parents' fundamental right to choose their children's education," and that the inclusion of parochial schools "is a Constitutionally necessary component of PPSP."
"They are very valid and very compelling arguments," Allen said, "and ones that I hope the court will carefully consider for the sake of the families and children the program will benefit."
To view CER Amici Curiae Briefs available online, see About School Choice.
Individuals and Organizations Joining
The Center for Education Reform Brief Amici Curaie
In the Court of Common Pleas for Franklin County, Ohio
CEO
America
CEOs for Fundamental Change in Education
Choice-in-Education League of Minnesota
Floridians for Educational Choice
Hispanics for Educational Choice
Illinois Coalition for Parental Choice in Education
Lisa Graham Keegan, Arizona State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Maine
School Choice Coalition
National Federation of Independent Business
North Carolina
Education Reform Foundation
Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association
REACH Alliance
Texas Coalition for Parental Choice in Education
United New Yorkers for Choice in Education
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The Center for Education Reform is a non-profit, national advocacy group working to improve the nation's schools. For more information about this or other education reform issues, please call (202) 822-9000 or (800) 521-2118, or send e-mail to cer@edreform.com.
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