Case Brief 1

David Ruehs, ED 631 – Minnesota State University, Moorhead

October 21, 2019

The Case: John Ellis ‘Jeb’ Bush v. Holmes, 919 So. 2d 392 (2006)

Action Sought: Rule the Florida law known as the Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) as
unconstitutional

Facts of the case: The Florida Legislature passed a law that paid vouchers for students’ tuition to private
schools if they lived in school district that fails to meet certain minimum state standards. The vouchers
represent the money that would have originally gone to the students’ originally determined public school
system.

Question to be answered by the court: Is the State of Florida prohibited by the Florida Constitution
from expending public funds to allow students to obtain a private school education in kindergarten
through grade twelve, as an alternative to a public school education.

Answers given by the court: Trial court: yes, unconstitutional. Appeal: yes, unconstitutional. Florida
Supreme Court: yes, unconstitutional

Reason: The Florida Constitution has language to provide uniformity requirements to the public school
system. Diverting public funds from the public school system to fund private school systems violates that
charge. The money also funds private schools that are not subject to the uniformity requirements.

Significance: The plaintiffs argued the uniformity ideas of free high quality public education, but also
that public money could not be used in respect to teach religion. Since the courts found that the law was
unconstitutional because of the uniformity language, they refused to wade into the religion aspect of the
complaint.

The idea that parents have options to send their children to successful schools is not being argued. They
can send their children to another public school, they can move to another school district, or they can pay
for a private education. The idea that public funds cannot be used for private school systems was the
question at hand.

If the OSP would have remained in place, there was no limit to the amount of money or students that
would have been diverted from the public school system to private school systems that do not adhere to
the uniformity requirements. Without those requirements, there could have been an ever growing number
of families that received the funds. Also, again, the state would not be able to guarantee “high quality”
education because of the lack of uniformity requirements.

Public schools receive public funds because they are adhering to the charge of the Florida Constitution to
provide “a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools that allows
students to obtain a high quality education.”