One of the four constitutional rights cases that I am
currently involved in involves Driver's Education at
Buffalo Grove High School. The other cases are:
- The Moment of Silence case, which I won in
federal district court and which is pending a
decision by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan
on whether or not she will appeal. Her decision on
appealing is due next week.
- The million tax dollars for Pilgrim Baptist
Church. I succeeded in blocking Pilgrim Baptist
from getting the money. However, this case is still
pending in State Court in Sangamon County. Lisa and
I are waiting for Governor Pat Quinn to decide
whether he wants to defend the grant or settle the
case.
- The Capital Bill that donates your tax dollars
to legislators' favorite houses of worship,
parochial schools and religious ministries.
I'm reviewing every single line item in the 996-page
Bill. The filing of the lawsuit on this one now is
most likely to be filed next week.
At issue in the Driver's Ed case is the $350 fee that
School District 214 charges students, including my
daughter, Dawn, for the Behind-the-Wheel portion of the
class.
When I asked District 214 what they do with the 350
dollars, they said that $150 is for the cost of the
cars, gas, oil, maintenance and insurance, while the
other $200 goes to cover part of their staffing costs
for the Behind-the-Wheel portion of their Driver's
Ed program.
I attempted to
persuade District 214 officials that, while they can
charge a fee for materials, such as the items covered by
the $150, Article
X, Section I of the
Illinois Constitution says, in pertinent part,
"Education in public schools through the secondary level
shall be free." This constitutional provision does not
allow school districts to charge students a fee to cover
the salary and benefits of teachers. District 214
responded by saying that they asked the Illinois General
Assembly to allow the School District to charge students
a Driver's Ed fee that includes an amount for staffing
costs, and the General Assembly approved the request.
I sued the School District and the Illinois State
Board of Education, which had a role in the matter,
asking that the court declare unconstitutional the
practice of charging students a fee to cover staffing
costs.
The School District and the State Board responded by
asking the court to dismiss my Complaint, which is a
standard procedural practice and nothing to be taken
personally. Their grounds for having the Complaint
dismissed is that they complied with all of the
available laws and that, therefore, they did nothing
wrong.
Yesterday, I timely filed my Memorandum in Opposition
to Defendants' Motion to Dismiss, in which I said that
the Supreme Court of Illinois ruled, recently, that the
General Assembly is not allowed to pass any law or take
any action that violates the Illinois Constitution, so
the Plaintiffs' Motion to Dismiss should be denied. The
case that I cited was the Jorgensen case from five years
ago, in which the General Assembly and
ex-Governor Blagojevich tried to reduce the salary of
judges due to economic pressures, despite the fact that
the Illinois Constitution prohibits a judge's salary
from being reduced during a judge's term of office.
The judges won that one. I argued, in my brief filed
yesterday that, just as the Constitution
prohibits judges' salaries from being reduced due to
economic pressures, the Constitution
also prohibits school districts from charging public
school students tuition to address economic pressures.
School District 214 and the State Board have two
weeks to file their replies to my response. We all get
together in Judge Peter Flynn's Chancery Court
courtroom, Room 2408 of the Daley Center in downtown
Chicago, on Monday, August 24th, at 10:00 a.m. You're
welcome to come by and watch exciting Constitutional
jousting take place.
Government in Illinois operates on two premises.
First, it's only illegal if somebody complains. Second,
the process to successfully complain is so cumbersome,
complicated and expensive, it is unlikely that any
citizen will challenge them on it, and even if somebody
did, the likelihood of being able to successfully
navigate the legal waters is remote.
That's where I come in. It's what I do. I've been
successful before, and I expect to be successful this
time, too.
