CHARLESTON – The West Virginia Professional Charter School Board has voted to join a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education regarding rules to limit how much grant money it can receive.
The board voted 4-0 October 18 to join the lawsuit originally filed by the Michigan Association of Public School Academies and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. The complaint seeks to end new grant-awarding regulations such as considering if the charters are overcrowded, work with public school systems and maintain diverse student bodies.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and Deputy Assistant Secretary Ruth E. Ryder also are named as defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed in the Western District of Michigan. MAPSA represents about 250 charters, and the Fordham Institute is an education think tank that helps oversee Ohio charters.
“Because of the great untapped potential for public charter school programs, Congress set aside hundreds of millions of dollars per year to fund innovative, high-quality charter school programs nationwide,” the complaint states. “Congress had a clear goal — ‘increase the number of high-quality charter schools available to students across the United States.’
“Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of Education is channeling the Administration’s apparent hostility towards charter schools into unconstitutional rulemaking, which will rob the neediest students of educational opportunity. … The department’s attack on the charter school program it is tasked with administering is unlawful. Not only does the department lack the authority to issue any new criteria; the proposed factors will punish the most successful charter school programs, particularly in school districts that enroll large numbers of minority students.
“All the while, the rule comes from an agency employee, and lacks even the blessing of a properly-appointed officer of the United States. The department’s sneak attack on the charter school program, and on the students caught in the middle, must be set aside by this court.”
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Education filed an answer asking to have the case dismissed.
The plaintiffs are being represented by Frank Garrison, Caleb Kruckenberg and Anastasia Boden of the Pacific Legal Foundation.
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan case number 1:22-cv-00712