For more information, contact:Release:May 2, 2011

Tara Thompson, Broken Arrow – (918) 259-5787

Stacey Butterfield, Jenks – (918) 299-4415

Gretchen Haas-Bethell, Union – (918) 357-6016

Area superintendents say a D.C.advocacy group’s lawsuit claim against them is untrue

Public schools superintendents Kirby Lehman (Jenks),Cathy Burden (Union), Jarod Mendenhall (Broken Arrow) and Keith Ballard (Tulsa) say the Washington D.C. law firm suing their districts has based its suit on false claims and is threatening the Oklahoma State Constitution.

On Monday, May 02, 2011, the superintendents received official notice of the lawsuit filed April 25 by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a national advocacy group which seeks to use public monies through vouchers to fund religious schools. The suit is filed in Federal Courton behalf of 20 parents whose special education students have attended the public school districts andwho receivedpayment to offset the cost of private or religious schools.

The suit asks a Federal judge to overturn a provision of the Oklahoma Constitution. It arises out of a challenge the districts made to HB 3393, the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship Act. This act forces public schools to grant publicly funded school vouchers to certain special education students for private or religious schools.

“The districts have maintained, since the law was proposed, that HB 3393 violates several provisions of the Oklahoma Constitution. By this lawsuit, it is obvious that the Becket Fund attorneys agree – it is a violation of the Oklahoma Constitution to pay public tax dollars to a religious school,” said Dr.Cathy Burden, Union Public Schools Superintendent. “They want to modify the constitution, and our boards of education want to support the OklahomaConstitution,” she said.

“I wonder how those parents with students attending public schools will react when they understand the reality of this situation,” said Dr. Jarod Mendenhall, Broken Arrow Public Schools Superintendent. “The reality is that their tax dollars are paying for someone else’s private education.”

Not only does this lawsuit seeka court decision and monetary damages against Tulsa, Union, Jenks, and Broken Arrow schools, it also attempts to overturn a provision of the Oklahoma State Constitution.The D.C. law firm filing the suit claims that Oklahoma’s Constitutional provision which prohibits public funding of religion violates the U.S. Constitution. The superintendents say thisargumentis not true.

“This provision is found in 37 other state constitutions, and the United States Supreme Court has upheld the same type of provision in the state of Washington’s constitution after a similar challenge,”saidDr. Kirby Lehman, Superintendent of Jenks Public Schools.

The superintendents also contend the Oklahoma Supreme Court has found public funding of religious schools to be contrary to what the people of Oklahoma have written into their StateConstitution. In a case in which parents sought public funds to transport their children to religious schools, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled the law:

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…leaves to every man the right to entertain such religious views as appeal to his individual conscience and allows him to provide for the religious instruction of his own children as he sees fit. But when a parent chooses to seek for his children educational facilities which combine secular and religious instruction, he is faced with the necessity of assuming the financial burden which that choice entails.

“That is exactly what our school boards have said – that parents seeking private education for their children are free to do so at their own expense,” said Burden.“However, HB 3393 forces public schools to violate our State’s constitution by using public tax dollars to pay for the private education of a select few.”

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has also held that the State’s constitutional clauseprohibiting state-funded religion is actually meant to protectreligious schools from the State Legislature:

...We must not overlook the fact that if the Legislature may directly or indirectly aid or support sectarian or denominational schools with public funds, then it would be a short step forward at another session to increase such aid, and only another short step to some regulation and at least partial control of such school by successive legislative enactment. From partial control to an effort at complete control might well be the expected development. The first step in any such direction should be promptly halted, and is effectively halted, and is permanently barred by our Constitution.

“This out-of-state law firm is not only seeking to nullify portions of the Oklahoma State Constitution with their suit, but they are also attempting to overturn rulings by our State Supreme Court,” Lehman said.“I think the people of Oklahoma deserve to establish and maintain their own State laws without interference from those seeking to further their own agendas.”

The four superintendents involved in this lawsuit say they will continue to follow all laws but express concern for the future of public education should laws like HB 3393 be allowed to stand.

“All Oklahoma children deserve a free, high-quality public education, but public schools cannot educate all learners with a limited amount of resources and also pay private school tuition– it’s simply not possible,”said Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent, Dr. Keith Ballard.

“America’s democratic way of life is grounded in universal access to quality public schools that educate all of our children to their potential,” said Mendenhall.

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