Court Opinion

ID: 9720583
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:36:51.65712+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:04:40.548336
License: Public Domain

Hallows, C. J.
(dissenting). In order to save the constitutionality of secs. 121.51 (4) and 121.54 (2) (b) 1, Stats., which were created by ch. 154, Laws of 1969, to save public funds, the majority has given a construction to these statutes beyond the breaking point and has construed them to mean exactly the opposite of what the legislature plainly said and intended. The last sentence in sec. 121.51 (4) clearly states, “The attendance areas of private schools affiliated with the same religious denomination shall not overlap.” The majority admits *218if this means what it says, the section is in constitutional difficulty because the classification for bus service, which object is the safety and welfare of children, rests upon the nongermane and unreasonably related basis of religious consideration.
The majority finds a legislative intent to establish an area or a proximity basis for determining which school pupils are to be assigned whether public, private, or parochial schools. This idea went out of style with segregation. Moreover, sec. 121.54 (2) (b) 1, Stats., does not require public and private nonreligious affiliated schools to have attendance areas which do not overlap. Two private unrelated nonsectarian schools have the whole district as their attendance area, while the individual Lutheran and Catholic schools are restricted to smaller attendance areas. The record shows there are overlapping in both the public and nonaffiliated private schools. In one instance, four public elementary schools are in one attendance area. While 576 students attending private-affiliated schools are not now bused, they were bused prior to the enactment of sec. 121.54 (2) (b) 1. These children represent about 30 percent of the students attending the Missouri Synod Lutheran, Wisconsin Synod Lutheran, and Roman Catholic elementary schools of their choice.
The majority attempts to save these sections by reading the statute to mean not “private schools affiliated with the same religious denomination” but “all private schools affiliated or operated by a single sponsoring group whether such school operating agency or corporation is secular or religious.” Thus the plain language “the same religious denomination” now becomes a single operating group and “religious” is read out of the classification. But the constitutionality is not saved, because under this interpretation there remains a distinction between private operating groups and the public schools and the classification is not germane to — safety and welfare of children.
*219If it is intended by the expanded language of the majority to include public schools, then public authorities will be required to make separate attendance areas for Franksville, Hood Creek, Bartlett, and Trautwein schools which now share the same attendance area, stop overlapping by administrative decree in special cases, and prohibit busing of children to other areas to eliminate segregation. From the records and exhibits showing these sections at work in practice, it is clear that they discriminate against sectarian private schools when compared to secular private schools and to public schools and this solely on the basis of religious affiliations.
These statutes restricting the benefits of school busing are contrary to State ex rel. Knudsen v. Board of Education (1969), 43 Wis. 2d 58, 168 N. W. 2d 295, wherein we stated, page 70, “It is apparently the rationale of the school board that its obligation is satisfied if it provides transportation of a Catholic child to a Catholic school. We do not conceive that its duty is so limited. The right is vested in the constitution for the child to go to whatever school he desires, provided that choice is the nearest available private school which the pupil may reasonably choose to attend. It is not for the school board to determine that the education which a child and his parents may wish is as well served by one school as another even though those schools practice a common religious doctrine.”
The attendance zones in this case are unreasonable and arbitrary and based on a religious classification. If there are to be attendance zones, let them apply to public, private, and religiously affiliated schools alike, but the legislature must say so, which secs. 121.54 (2) (b) 1 and 121.51 (4), Stats., do not. We cannot take clear and unambiguous language and under the guise of construction or interpretation change what the legislature has said. I respectfully dissent. I think these sections are unconstitutional.