Lopez v. Schwartz

Hello. So today I'm going to do my presentation on

a court case out of Nevada.

That court case is Lopez v.

Sports, and this case focuses on a lawsuit that parents

from the Nevada Public School System community brought against a

new bill that was passed that would allow vouchers.

Wow! Okay.

In June of 2015, the Nevada Legend Nevada legislator passed

Senate Bill 30 to establishing a controversial program to use

public funding to pay for private schooling for students who

qualify. The voucher law directs the state treasurer to deposit

taxpayer funding into private bank accounts called education Savings Accounts

or ESA's.

These accounts would take those funds to pay for private

school tuition, tutoring, online classes, home schooling expenses, transportation to

and from private schools and other private service is On

September 9, 2015, a group of parents whose Children attended

Nevada public schools filed a lawsuit challenging challenging the state's

new voucher law.

So what's the big deal behind the voucher law?

Why are parents so upset?

Well, if we look deeper into it, we see that

ESAs are funded by diverting the per pupil funds provided

by the legislator for Nevada public schools.

The essay amount is based on the statewide average per

pupil amount guaranteed in the state budget to operate the

public schools.

The vultures are either 90% or 100% of that amount,

or between approximately $5100.5710 dollars for each essay.

The state treasurer deduct the per pupil amount from public

schools district budgets, which then reduces the funding available to

educate public school students.

Nevada parents sued because essays will take critically needed funding

away from public schools and lower the quality of education

for their Children.

E essays will also reduce public school funding, causing cuts

to teachers, support staff and other vital programs for the

450 Nevada Children attending public schools across the state.

Many of these Children are Children with disabilities, are English

language learners and students at risk of falling behind or

dropping out.

And the most important aspect here of why the new

voucher program was such a big deal is that the

Nevada Constitution prohibits taxpayer funds provided by the legislator for

the operation off the public school from being used for

any other purpose So here we can see why this

new voucher, um law that was passed was such a

big deal.

So there were two primary basis of the parents arguments

during this lawsuit.

So the the Nevada Constitution, as we all know, prohibits

taxpayer funds from being provided to do anything other than

run the public school.

That was the parents main argument.

Their parents claimed that the voucher program violates this constitutional

ban by diverting the funding necessary to educate their Children

in the public schools to pay for private school vouchers.

The parents also claimed that the voucher law violates the

Nevada Constitution by lowering the amount of funding provided in

the Nevada state budget for public education and by using

public funds to pay for private schools.

They're not required to serve all students.

They are not subject to anti discrimination laws and are

not accountable for students.

Performance like the public schools, are so of course.

In January 2016, the parents won their motion for a

preliminary injunction in the trial court, which halted the implementation

of the voucher programs.

The state treasurer, Dan Schwartz, appealed the trial court decision

to the Supreme Court in Nevada, which heard oral arguments

in July of 2016.

On September 29th 2016, the Supreme Court ruled that the

E s a voucher program is unconstitutional because it violates

the prohibit prohibition on use of public school funds for

the for other purposes and permanently blocked its implementation.

Lopez v. Schwartz

Audio TranscriptAuto-generated