FIGHTING FOR CHOICE: Jose Martinez, left, and his mother Jessica Martinez, lead plaintiff in Martinez v. Malloy, pose for a photo outside the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut on Wednesday in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Martinez v. Malloy is a federal education equality lawsuit against the State of Connecticut, filed by a group of students and parents with the support of Students Matter.
The same day American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten tweeted hopefully that the death of the Vergara v. California case may end “a billionaire backed effort to pit students against teachers” a new suit attacking lack of educational options for primarily low-income and minority students surfaced in Connecticut.
Nine parent and student plaintiffs represented by Students Matter, a national nonprofit organization founded by David Welch, the same billionaire Weingarten referenced, filed the suit in U.S. District Court in the District of Connecticut on Tuesday. Students Matter also represented the plaintiffs in the Vergara case.
Joshua Lipshutz, lead co-counsel for Plaintiffs in Martinez v. Malloy, told Watchdog.org challenging the constitutionality of several Connecticut laws restricting availability of quality public school options is a necessity as thousands of students remain in schools failing to provide adequate education.
“Throughout the State of Connecticut, and indeed across the nation, there are high-quality public schools educating our children. Unfortunately, some states like Connecticut have enacted laws and policies that shut the door to opportunity for too many students like the plaintiffs in this case,” said Lipshutz. “These laws make no sense, they are illogical, they do not serve the interests of students and they must be struck down. Martinez v. Malloy is a critical first step in removing burdensome bureaucracy and red tape depriving students of the quality public education they need to succeed.”
The new Students Matter suit, Martinez v. Malloy, challenges the following:
- A moratorium on new magnet schools although magnet schools consistently outperform inner-city traditional district schools
- A cap on public charter schools despite the few existing charter schools consistently outperforming in comparison to inner-city traditional district schools
- Penalties to school districts that accept students from inner-city school districts through the state’s inter-district Open Choice enrollment program
The lawsuit states: “Connecticut has taken steps that prevent these poor and minority children from having viable public-school alternatives — knowingly depriving low-income and minority schoolchildren of the vital educational opportunities available to their more affluent and predominantly white peers. This intolerable, ‘state-imposed’ system of discrimination ‘disrespect[s] and subordinate[s]’ the liberty and dignity of children living in Connecticut’s most neglected communities, relegating them to second-class citizenship and stamping them with a badge of inferiority that will harm them ‘for the rest of time.’”
The defendants in the lawsuit are Gov. Dannel Patrick Malloy, Commissioner of Education Dianna Wentzell, State Comptroller Kevin Lembo, State Treasurer Denise Nappier and Secretary of State Denise Merrill.
Lead plaintiff Jessica Martinez, a single mother who lives in Bridgeport, Conn., has repeatedly applied on behalf of her 13-year-old son Jose for admission to high-performing magnet schools and without luck because of the state’s magnet and charter laws — referred to in the lawsuit as “anti-opportunity laws.” Jose has been rejected and stuck in districts known to be failing students and his mother will continue to try to have him transferred, “but—as a direct result of the Anti-Opportunity Laws—he has been denied admission to those schools based on a lack of capacity,” according to the Students Matter lawsuit.
Jose once attended one of the lowest-performing school districts in the state that eventually became a turnaround district and now finds himself assigned to attend one of the lowest rated high schools in the state.
The lawsuit goes on to say: “One of Jose’s teachers even once advised Jessica Martinez, Jose’s mother, that she and Jose should ‘move to Fairfield County’—a wealthier, whiter suburb with higher quality traditional district schools—because ‘her son doesn’t belong here’ in one of Bridgeport’s underperforming schools. But Jessica believes that Jose and his Bridgeport peers deserve the same educational opportunities that his suburban peers enjoy.”
Now, it’s up for the courts to decide.