Court Opinion

ID: 9670036
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:12:58.181678+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:01.955672
License: Public Domain

FINE, J.
¶ 23. (dissenting). The Majority permits what I perceive as a clearly political decision by Elizabeth Burmaster to trump the legislature's command that poor children living in the City of Milwaukee be able to attend private schools "located in the city" of Milwaukee. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
¶ 24. The legislative command is clear:
(2) (a) Subject to par. (b), any pupil in grades kindergarten to 12 who resides within the city may attend, at no charge, any private school located in the city if all of the following apply:
1. The pupil is a member of a family that has a total family income that does not exceed an amount equal to 1.75 times the poverty level determined in accordance *239with criteria established by the director of the federal office of management and budget.
2. In the previous school year the pupil was enrolled in the school district operating under this chapter, was attending a private school under this section, was enrolled in grades kindergarten to 3 in a private school located in the city other than under this section or was not enrolled in school.
3. The private school notified the state superintendent of its intent to participate in the program under this section by February 1 of the previous school year. The notice shall specify the number of pupils participating in the program under this section for which the school has space.
4. The private school complies with 42 USC 2000d.
5. The private school meets all health and safety laws or codes that apply to public schools.
Wis. Stat. § 119.23.1 As the Majority recognizes, the key phrase, from which all aspects of its decision flow, *240is: "any private school located in the city." According to the Majority, Thomas More High School is not "located in the city" of Milwaukee because only some twenty percent of its grounds are in Milwaukee, and all of the buildings are in the City of St. Francis. I respectfully disagree.
¶ 25. More than bricks and mortar do a school make. Athletics are essential to the whole person and enhance the school experience of all students, even those who sit and cheer, as did I when I was a student. But beyond that, where would the Majority draw the line? It seems to say that in order to participate under Wis. Stat. § 119.23 (The "Milwaukee parental choice program") (bolding in original), a school's buildings must be in the City of Milwaukee. All of them? Ninety-eight percent of them? Fifty percent? Two percent? In my view, a school is where it is, and if it straddles two or more municipalities, it is "located" in each of them. Indeed, both the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association and the Woodland Conference consider Thomas More High School a City of Milwaukee school.
¶ 26. The Majority also opines that Thomas More High School cannot comply with Wis. Stat. § 119.23(7)(d)l (schools participating in the voucher program must submit a "copy of the school's current certificate of occupancy issued by the city") because "it would be impossible to do so." Majority, ¶ 17. The Majority does not explain, and I do not understand, either: (a) why Milwaukee cannot issue a "certificate of occupancy," or join in a certificate of occupancy with overlapping jurisdiction, for a facility that straddles Milwaukee and another community; or (b) why, under the statute, a certificate of occupancy issued by the City of St. Francis should not suffice. As to the latter point, the statute, unlike Burmaster's regulation, uses the *241word "city" in establishing the safety-based requirement that schools participating in the choice program have a certificate of occupancy. We can ascribe more than one meaning to the same word when that is necessary to reify legislative intent. See Wisconsin Citizens Concerned for Cranes & Doves v. Wisconsin Dep't of Natural Res., 2004 WI 40, ¶¶ 19-24, 270 Wis. 2d 318, 338-342, 677 N.W.2d 612, 622-624 (mourning doves are "game," defined as "wild... birds," even though they are not "game birds" and are within the category of "nongame species"); Turner v. City of Milwaukee, 193 Wis. 2d 412, 420, 535 N.W.2d 15, 17 (Ct. App. 1995) (when statutes on the same subject conflict or are inconsistent with one another, courts must attempt to harmonize them in order to effectuate the legislature's intent). Assume that some of Thomas More High School's buildings were in Milwaukee, who would, under the Majority's rationale, issue the certificate of occupancy for those buildings in St. Francis?2
¶ 27. The legislature has clearly commanded that private schools "located in the city" of Milwaukee be allowed to participate in the Milwaukee parental choice program. Its concurrent desire that the schools be safe, and thus have a certificate of occupancy, should not be used as a device to deprive those qualifying Milwaukee *242children whose parents want to give them an education at Thomas More High School the opportunity to do so (absent, of course, any evidence, and there is none in this record, that Thomas More High School is unsafe). Indeed, as the Majority recognizes, the legislature attempted to clarify that Thomas More High School could participate in the Milwaukee parental choice program, but the legislation was vetoed by Governor Jim Doyle. See Majority, ¶ 8. I wonder how Burmaster can argue that we should discern legislative intent from a governor's veto of legislation passed by both houses of the legislature. Further, the Majority's reprinting of part of Burmaster's letter rejecting Thomas More High School's application to participate in the choice program raises more questions than it answers. First, 2001 Wis. Act 16 was the biennium budget enacted on August 30, 2001. In slip form together with gubernatorial vetoes, it is 789 pages. See http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2001/data/ acts/01Actl6.pdf. Neither Burmaster nor the Majority explains why an unspecified provision relating to Thomas More High School did not make it into that mélange. Many reasons may swim below the surface, including legislators' desire to get an early start on Labor Day without having the budget bill's adoption process riven by debate. Second, we cannot assess what weight to give to what was done (and, again, we do not know what was done or why) without knowing the proposal or proposals to which Burmaster may have been referring and the specific language. All we have is Burmaster's letter purporting to relate what the legislature or some legislators may or may not have done. In my view, that is a watery meringue that supports no weight.
¶ 28. I'm reminded of how Gertrude Stein expressed the futility of trying to return to her Oakland California roots because so much had changed in the *243years since she had left her childhood home: "there is no there there." Gertrude Stein, Everybody's Autobiography 298 (Exact Change 1993) (1937). The Majority says, in essence, that there is no "there" for Thomas More High School; under the Majority's rationale, Thomas More High School is nowhere. I respectfully dissent.

 Wisconsin Stat. § 119.23(2)(b) is not applicable here. It provides:
No more than 15% of the school district's membership may attend private schools under this section. If in any school year there are more spaces available in the participating private schools than the maximum number of pupils allowed to participate, the department shall prorate the number of spaces available at each participating private school.
42 U.S.C. § 2000d also does not apply here, except as reifying the intent behind § 119.23(2)(a) to give every Milwaukee child equal access to quality education. It provides:
No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or he subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

 Wisconsin Stat. § 119.23(7)(d)l is not the only provision where a certificate of occupancy is needed for property that may be in two or more adjoining municipalities. Wisconsin Stat. § 823.114(l)(d) authorizes the circuit court to order closure of buildings deemed to be nuisances "until all building code violations are corrected and a new certificate of occupancy is issued if required by the city, town or village within which the property is located." The Majority's definition of "located" makes this provision a nullity for properties that straddle two or more units of local government.