Download - Swanson vs Guthrie, Dr. William Allan Kritsonis, Educational Laws & Policies, Public School Law

8/14/2019 Swanson vs Guthrie, Dr. William Allan Kritsonis, Educational Laws & Policies, Public School Law

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William Allan Kritsonis, PhD

Professor

Public School Law & Educational Laws and Policies

HYBRID LEARNING

INTRODUCTION

The term hybrid learning has evolved in recent time to incorporate many different

definitions. It is currently most often used to refer to a mixed teaching environment where a

portion of the class is taught traditionally, with face to face instruction, and a second portion is

taught electronically, via online chat rooms and discussions. In the home school setting, hybridlearning refers to teaching the student in the home school setting and also teaching them in the

traditional public school setting for a limited number, of often specialized, courses. It can also

refer to the religious education given at home and the athletic or elective, secular, education

given at school. The aim of many religious based home schooling parents is to limit the contact

of their students with negative, secular influences which may interfere with their eternal

salvation.

For the purpose of this report, we will focus on hybrid learning in the home school

setting. Quite often, parents choose to home school their children for a variety of reasons. Once

children reach a certain age, especially those looking forward to attending college, parents often

feel that some courses (choir, band, foreign languages, and laboratory science courses to name a

few) are better taught in the public school setting utilizing available resources. This places school

districts in a financial predicament; if the student only attends classes for one or two class

periods then the school district is providing services without receiving funding for the student

due to attendance and constitutional accountability rules and expectations. School districts also

often look to retain students full time due to state constitutional obligations. This report will

explore the obligation of the school district to provide educational services.

Case One

United States Court of Appeals,

United States Supreme Court

State of Wisconsin

v.

Jonas Yoder, Wallace Miller, and Adin Yutzy

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Docket No. 70-110

Opinion: 406 U.S. 205 (1972)

LITIGANTS

Plaintiff – Appelant: State of Wisconsin, et. al

Defendant – Appellee: Jonas Yoder, Wallace Miller, and Adin Yutzy

BACKGROUND

James Yoder and William Miller ,who were members of the Old Order Amish religion,

and respondent Adin Yutzy, a member of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church, were

accused of violating Wisconsin’s compulsory school attendance law which required them to sendtheir children to school until the age of sixteen. All three families resided in Green County,

Wisconsin. The respondents refused to send their children to school beyond the eighth grade

fearing for the eternal salvation of their children and themselves. The school district ticketed and

fined the families because they had not enrolled their children in school for their ninth gradeyear. The families were charged, tried, and convicted for violating compulsory school

attendance and received a fine of five dollars each. The families refuted the charges saying their first and fourteenth Amendment rights were violated. The Wisconsin v Yoder case is repeatedly

referenced in home school legal arguments as the only case decided in favor of home school

education.

FACTS

Respondents, members of the Old Order Amish religion and the Conservative AmishMennonite Church, were convicted of violating Wisconsin's compulsory school attendance law

(which requires a child's school attendance until age 16) by declining to send their children to

public or private school after they had graduated from the eighth grade. The evidence showedthat the Amish provide continuing informal vocational education to their children designed to

prepare them for life in the rural Amish community. The evidence also showed that respondents

sincerely believed that high school attendance was contrary to the Amish religion and way of life, and that they would endanger their own salvation and that of their children by complying

with the law. The State Supreme Court sustained respondents' claim that application of the

compulsory school attendance law to them violated their rights under the Free Exercise Clause of

the First Amendment, made applicable to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment.

DECISION

There is no doubt as to the power of a State, having a high responsibility for education of its citizens, to impose reasonable regulations for the control and duration of basic education.

Providing public schools ranks at the very apex of the function of a State. Yet even this

paramount responsibility was, in Pierce, made to yield to the right of parents to provide anequivalent education in a privately operated system. There the Court held that Oregon's statute

compelling attendance in a public school from age eight to age 16 unreasonably interfered with

the interest of parents in directing the rearing of their offspring, including their education in

church-operated schools. As that case suggests, the values of parental direction of the religious

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upbringing and education of their children in their early and formative years have a high place in

our society. Thus, a State's interest in universal education, however highly we rank it, is not

totally free from a balancing process when it impinges on fundamental rights and interests, suchas those specifically protected by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, and the

traditional interest of parents with respect to the religious upbringing of their children so long as

they "prepare [them] for additional obligations."It follows that in order for Wisconsin to compel school attendance beyond the eighth

grade against a claim that such attendance interferes with the practice of a legitimate religious

belief, it must appear either that the State does not deny the free exercise of religious belief by itsrequirement, or that there is a state interest of sufficient magnitude to override the interest

claiming protection under the Free Exercise Clause.... The essence of all that has been said and

written on the subject is that only those interests of the highest order and those not otherwise

served can overbalance legitimate claims to the free exercise of religion. We can accept it assettled, therefore, that, however strong the State's interest in universal compulsory education, it is

by no means absolute to the exclusion or subordination of all other interests.

DICTA

Contrary to the suggestion of the dissenting opinion of MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS, our holding today in no degree depends on the assertion of the religious interest of the child as

contrasted with that of the parents. It is the parents who are subject to prosecution here for failing

to cause their children to attend school, and it is their right of free exercise, not that of their

children, that must determine Wisconsin's power to impose criminal penalties on the parent. Thedissent argues that a child who expresses a desire to attend public high school in conflict with the

wishes of his parents should not be prevented from doing so. There is no reason for the Court to

consider that point since it is not an issue in the case. The children are not parties to thislitigation. The State has at no point tried this case on the theory that respondents were preventing

their children from attending school against their expressed desires, and indeed the record is to

the contrary. The State's position from the outset has been that it is empowered to apply itscompulsory-attendance law to Amish parents in the same manner as to other parents - that is,

without regard to the wishes of the child. That is the claim we reject today.

For the reasons stated we hold, with the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, that the First and

Fourteenth Amendments prevent the State from compelling respondents to cause their children to

attend formal high school to age 16. Affirmed.

MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS, dissenting in part.

I agree with the Court that the religious scruples of the Amish are opposed to the

education of their children beyond the grade schools, yet I disagree with the Court's conclusionthat the matter is within the dispensation of parents alone. The Court's analysis assumes that the

only interests at stake in the case are those of the Amish parents on the one hand, and those of

the State on the other. The difficulty with this approach is that, despite the Court's claim, the parents are seeking to vindicate not only their own free exercise claims, but also those of their

high-school-age children. It is the future of the student, not the future of the parents, that is

imperiled by today's decision. If a parent keeps his child out of school beyond the grade school,

then the child will be forever barred from entry into the new and amazing world of diversity that

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we have today. The child may decide that that is the preferred course, or he may rebel. It is the

student's judgment, not his parents', that is essential if we are to give full meaning to what we

have said about the Bill of Rights and of the right of students to be masters of their own destiny.If he is harnessed to the Amish way of life by those in authority over him and if his education is

truncated, his entire life may be stunted and deformed. The child, therefore, should be given an

opportunity to be heard before the State gives the exemption which we honor today. The viewsof the two children in question were not canvassed by the Wisconsin courts. The matter should

be explicitly reserved so that new hearings can be held on remand of the case.

IMPLICATIONS

Wisconsin v. Yoder interpreted the Free Exercise Clause by constructing a three-part test

intended to balance state educational interests against the interests of religious freedom. This

balancing test marked the height of the move away from the belief-action doctrine established inthe nineteenth century. The decision also impacted debates regarding parental control of their

children's education.

The Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment has posed a challenge to those courtsfaced with conflicts between religion and the government. The clause, which protects the free

exercise of religion, fails to define religion, leaves its protective parameters unclear, and invites awide range of interpretations. Interpreting free exercise becomes especially tricky--and

especially important--in a culturally diverse nation such as the United States, when members of a

religious minority seek exemption from state or federal laws because of their religious beliefs.

The Court used a three-part test to decide the case. First, it asked whether the religious

beliefs in question were sincerely held. Secondly, it asked whether state law did in fact seriously

burden those beliefs. After answering in the affirmative to the first two parts, the Court went onto consider the balance of the state's interests against the free exercise interests of the Amish. It

determined that in order to rule for the state, state interests had to override religious interests, and

that there must be no other way for state interests to be met other than to impinge upon religiousfreedom. Here the Court found that the state's interest in educating children to be responsible,

productive citizens did not override the Amish parents' right to protect their community's

religious beliefs by keeping their children out of high school.

The decision in Wisconsin v. Yoder brought together two areas of legal interpretation:

parental control over education and the free exercise of religion. Between 1923 and 1927 a series

of Supreme Court decisions--Meyer v .Nebraska, Pierce v. Society of Sisters, and Farrington v.

Tokushige--established parents' constitutional right to exert control over their children's

education, though strictly in a secular context. Yoder introduced a religious dimension to that

debate.

Case Two

United States Court of Appeals,

Tenth Circuit.

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ANNIE SWANSON, et al, Plaintiffs-Appellants,

v.GUTHRIE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. I-L, Defendants-Appellees

No. 96-6354

LITIGANTS

Plaintiffs – Appellants: ANNIE SWANSON, by and through her parents and next friends,

DENNIS SWANSON and LUCY SWANSON

Defendant – Appellee: GUTHRIE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT

BACKGROUND

Annie has been home-schooled by her parents since she started school. WhenAnnie reached the seventh grade, her parents decided that she would benefit by taking a few

classes at the public school. Annie's parents believed the public school's ability to teach certainclasses (particularly foreign-language classes, vocal music, and some science classes) was

superior to their instructional capability in those areas, and that attending some classes at the

public school would better prepare Annie for college. The Guthrie School Board policy is as

follows:

"It is the policy of the Guthrie Board of Education that all students

enrolling in Guthrie Public Schools must do so on a full-time basis.Full-time basis shall be defined as attending classes for the full

instructional day within the public school system or in conjunction

with another state accredited institution such as vocational-technical school or a college or university for concurrent

enrollment. The only exceptions to this policy shall be for fifth-

year seniors and special education students whose IEP's requirevariations of student schedules."

Annie's parents spoke to the then-superintendent of schools and received permission for

her to attend two seventh-grade classes for the last nine weeks of the school year. She attendedthose classes, performed very well in them, and caused no disruption to the school system. Annie

then pre-registered for two classes for the eighth grade. Before she began school, however,

Defendant Bowman was hired as the new superintendent. He refused to allow Annie to attend theeighth grade on a part-time basis, and told her parents they would need permission from the

school board. He also made some statements that Mrs. Swanson interpreted as criticism of

Christian home-schoolers.

He Board confirmed their policy but did add the following sentence: "In the event the

State Department of Education advises us that part-time students can be counted for state aid

purposes, the Board will reconsider this policy." The board's president also made a public

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statement concerning the issue, noting the board's respect for the right of parents to home-school

their children, and indicating that the basis for the board's decision was simply the fact that part-

time students cannot be counted for state financial-aid purposes. In April 1995, Plaintiffs filedthe instant lawsuit, alleging various constitutional violations and a state-law claim. Following a

motion to dismiss by Defendants, a motion for summary judgment by Plaintiffs, and a hearing on

Plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction, the district court granted summary judgment for Defendants.

FACTS

In August 1994 the school board held a regularly-scheduled meeting at which the

Swansons were allowed to present their position. The board deferred a decision on adopting a

policy concerning part-time attendance, but did vote to require Annie to register as a full-time

student if she wished to attend eighth-grade classes before such a policy could be adopted.Following this meeting, attorneys representing Annie and her parents wrote to the school board

threatening a lawsuit and requesting an opportunity to address the board. A special meeting of

the board was held in October 1994, at which the board reiterated its previously-adopted policy.

The board also added the following sentence to the policy: "In the event the State Department of Education advises us that part-time students can be counted for state aid purposes, the Board will

reconsider this policy." The board's president also made a public statement concerning the issue,noting the board's respect for the right of parents to home-school their children, and indicating

that the basis for the board's decision was simply the fact that part-time students cannot be

counted for state financial-aid purposes. Pursuant to the board's policy, Annie was not allowed to

take classes of her choice from the public school during the 1994-95 school year, or to otherwiseattend the public school on a part-time basis.

DECISION

The claimed constitutional right Plaintiffs wish to establish in this case is the right of

parents to send their children to public school on a part-time basis, and to pick and choose whichcourses their children will take from the public school. Plaintiffs would have this right override

the local school board's explicit decision to disallow such part-time attendance (except where the

school would receive state funding for the part-time attendee). However, decisions as to how toallocate scarce resources, as well as what curriculum to offer or require, are uniquely committed

to the discretion of local school authorities.

Plaintiffs maintain that they do not wish to alter the curriculum offered by Defendants,and that they are therefore in a different position than the parents in other cases who wanted to

exempt their children from certain classes or requirements. Plaintiffs do wish to exempt Annie

from certain classes-they simply wish to exempt her from more classes. We see no difference of constitutional dimension between picking and choosing one class your child will not attend, and

picking and choosing three, four, or five classes your child will not attend. The right to direct

one's child's education does not protect either alternative. Parents do not have a Constitutionalright to control every aspect of their child’s education.

DICTA

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Plaintiffs have attempted to portray this case as one involving religious discrimination

against Christian home-schoolers. The record provided to the district court and this court,

however, indicates that it involves only financial distinctions between certain part-time studentsand all home-schoolers, secular or religious, as well as private-school students. Since this case

involved only a neutral rule of general applicability, it was sufficient for Defendants to prove a

reasonable relationship between the part-time-attendance policy and a legitimate purpose of theschool board. Plaintiffs have not argued that Defendants failed to meet this low threshold, and it

is clear that Defendants have satisfied it. Therefore, the district court's decision dismissing all of

Plaintiffs' claims is AFFIRMED.

We note that Plaintiffs do not appear to have made a sufficient evidentiary showing

below to raise an issue of fact concerning the neutrality of the part-time-attendance policy. It is

undisputed that the only exceptions to the policy constitute categories of students that arecounted for state-aid purposes; that is, if the state counts a part-time student, such as a student

enrolled in a vocational-technical program as well as the high school, as a full-time student for

purposes of doling out educational funds, the policy grants an exception to the full-time-

attendance requirement. This is not discrimination on the basis of religion, but on the basis of funding. In addition, it is undisputed that no school board member made any derogatory

comments about Christian home-schoolers or home-schoolers of any kind, unlike the citycouncilors in Lukumi Babalu Aye. Finally, the fact that Annie is the only student who has to this

point requested the privilege of attending public school part-time does not mean that the policy

was aimed solely at her. The school board expressly discussed the fact that the problem was the

precedent that would be set, not that Annie's attendance alone would cause difficulties. Perhaps because the neutrality issue was not raised below, Plaintiffs failed to make any evidentiary

showing that the adoption of the policy was motivated by a discriminatory motive of any kind.

IMPLICATIONS

It was feared that Annie's request, if granted, could set a precedent allowing other home-

schooled children as well as private-school students to use the public school's facilities on an as-

wanted basis, without a corresponding increase in state financial aid. This would result in ahardship for the districts in attempting to allocate scarce funds.

Dr. William Allan Kritsonis Inducted into the William H.

Parker Leadership Academy Hall of Honor (HBCU)

Remarks by Angela Stevens McNeil

July 26th 2008

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Good Morning. My name is Angela Stevens McNeil and I have the privilege of

introducing the next Hall of Honor Inductee, Dr. William Allan Kritsonis. Dr. Kritsonis

was chosen because of his dedication to the educational advancement of Prairie

View A&M University students. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in 1969 from Central

Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. In 1971, he earned his Master’s

in Education from Seattle Pacific University. In 1976, he earned his PhD from theUniversity of Iowa.

Dr. Kritsonis has served and blessed the field of education as a teacher,

principal, superintendent of schools, director of student teaching and field

experiences, invited guest professor, author, consultant, editor-in-chief, and

publisher. He has also earned tenure as a professor at the highest academic rank

at two major universities.

In 2005, Dr. Kritsonis was an Invited Visiting Lecturer at the Oxford Round

Table at Oriel College in the University of Oxford, Oxford, England. His lecture was

entitled the Ways of Knowing through the Realms of Meaning.

In 2004, Dr. William Allan Kritsonis was recognized as the Central

Washington University Alumni Association Distinguished Alumnus for the College of

Education and Professional Studies.

Dr. William Kritsonis is a well respected author of more than 500 articles in

professional journals and several books. In 1983, Dr. Kritsonis founded the

NATIONAL FORUM JOURNALS. These publications represent a group of highly

respected scholarly academic periodicals. In 2004, he established the DOCTORAL

FORUM – National Journal for Publishing and Mentoring Doctoral Student

Research. The DOCTORAL FORUM is the only refereed journal in Americacommitted to publishing doctoral students while they are enrolled in course work in

their doctoral programs. Over 300 articles have been published by doctorate and

master’s degree students and most are indexed in ERIC.

Currently, Dr. Kritsonis is a Professor in the PhD Program in Educational

Leadership here at Prairie View A&M University.

Dr. William Kritsonis has dedicated himself to the advancement of

educational leadership and to the education of students at all levels. It is my honor

to bring him to the stage at this time as a William H. Parker Leadership Academy Hall

of Honor Inductee.

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