State AG won’t represent Department of Public Instruction in Catholic school case

Wisconsin Institute of Law & Liberty, where I work, is representing the Catholic school in the case, St. Augustine School, where I went to grade school and high school. Neat when worlds collide. 

From Wiggy:
Attorney General Brad Schimel’s office announced it will not be representing state Superintendent for Public Instruction Tony Evers or the department in a lawsuit challenging the state’s authority to decide whether a school is Catholic.

The suit was filed by St. Augustine School in Richfield and two sets of parents of students in the Friess Lake School District. The school and the parents are suing because the students are being denied bus transportation.

In an emailed statement, the state Department of Justice said “DOJ is no longer representing DPI in this case. We believe different representation was appropriate based on our legal analysis of DPI’s position.”

The DOJ and the attorney general declined to comment further.

At stake is whether Evers and the Friess Lake School District get to decide if a school is Catholic or not. Schools with the same religious affiliation within a school district must divide the district into non-overlapping attendance areas and students are not entitled to publicly funded transportation from one attendance area to another.

The Friess Lake School district claims that St. Augustine is a Catholic school and so must split the district with another Catholic school. Evers and DPI concurred when the decision was appealed.

Read more here

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