Parents don't have right to public-school choice, 8th Circuit rules
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A federal appeals court has ruled that parents have no constitutional right to send their children to the public school of their choice.
The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled (PDF) on Monday in a suit by parents in northeast Arkansas who wanted to move their children to nearby, wealthier school districts, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports.
An Arkansas law allows parents to choose where their children attend school, except when parents want to transfer children from school districts that are subject to federal desegregation orders. The plaintiffs’ children were in the Blytheville School District, and school officials said the district was still subject to a 1971 desegregation order. The parents said the order no longer applied.
The 8th Circuit didn’t take a position on whether the order still applied, but it said relevant precedent has found no fundamental right or liberty for parents to choose where their children are educated within the public school system.
Court have ruled that parents have the right to choose private schools for their children, but those rulings don’t apply when parents seek a right to choose public schools, the appeals court said.
