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Court Dismisses Education Association Lawsuit Against Tax Credit Scholarship

Thomas Favre-Bulle
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flickr.com/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/

The First District Court of Appeal has dismissed the Florida Education Association’s lawsuit against the state’s tax credit scholarships.

Ron Meyer the lawyer for the state’s largest teacher’s union says the association is disappointed.

“This case before the appellate court was all about the legal standing of the parents and organizations which wanted to come forward and reach the merits of their constitutional claims that these voucher programs are unconstitutional. The court said these plaintiffs don’t have any special injury, but that wholly ignores our actual allegations,” Meyer says.

The Florida tax credit scholarship program gives businesses a tax break when they provide funding for scholarships which are awarded to low income kids who wish to attend private school. The Education association alleges the program amounts to funding a parallel school system and using state money to fund religious institutions.  FEA officials say they’re considering their option’s after the court dismissal of their case.Meyer says those options include asking the state Supreme Court to take up the case or considering different litigation.

Follow @Regan_McCarthy

Regan McCarthy is the Assistant News Director for WFSU Public Media. Before coming to Tallahassee, Regan graduated with honors from Indiana University’s Ernie Pyle School of Journalism. She worked for several years for NPR member station WFIU in Bloomington, Ind., where she covered local and state government and produced feature and community stories.

Phone: (850) 645-6090 | rmccarthy@fsu.edu

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