To the editor:
The Dolan v. Chester lawsuit is far from over.
The lawsuit was filed by the parents of Gloucester public schoolchildren after the state Commissioner of Education and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education ignored and violated their own rules when they granted a charter to the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School.
The case is now moving from the trial court to the appellate court because the granting of a motion for summary judgment leaves significant questions of law unresolved and conflicts with an earlier ruling by another judge.
The ruling last month that parents do not have a right or the legal "standing" to bring this lawsuit is at odds with the court's previous ruling on this point.
The defendants had challenged the standing of the parent plaintiffs when the complaint was first filed with the court. At that time, the court ruled that parents of children who attend the public schools are precisely the people who have legal standing to challenge improper action by the Board and Commissioner of Education in awarding a school charter in their district.
This most recent ruling appears to close the door to almost anyone bringing a legal challenge to the granting of a school charter, no matter how egregious the alleged conduct by state officials, or how compelling the evidence against them.
In this case, the parents' claim is based, in the words of the court, on "considerable evidence" that the board and the commissioner blatantly ignored and violated the law when they granted the GCACS charter to appease organizations from which he hoped to win political support.
There is also compelling evidence that the commissioner concealed from the board his own department's determination that the charter application had failed to satisfy state chartering criteria.
Despite this evidence, the trial court has held that discretionary decisions of the board and commissioner cannot be challenged even where they are the product of misconduct.
That reasoning, left unchallenged, would grant the Board and the Commissioner license to ignore state regulations whenever it would be convenient for them to do so.
The harm that will be inflicted on our children's education by the diversion of funds to a school that was chartered illegally is well documented.
The notions that the commissioner and board are outside the reach of the courts, and can excuse themselves at will from following their own regulations, are affronts to everything we are taught about government not being above the law in a democracy.
The failure of the commissioner and board to ensure adherence to objective charter approval criteria established to protect the education of children is disgraceful.
We look forward to bringing our case to the appellate court.
PETER DOLAN
Gloucester
Lead Plaintiff, Dolan v. Chester lawsuit
