Court Opinion

ID: 9794421
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:05:25.946489+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:13:08.951349
License: Public Domain

MOSK, J., Dissenting.
The majority opinion holds that Education Code section 39807.5, which purports to authorize school districts to charge fees for pupil transportation, does not violate the free school guaranty (art. IX, § 5) of the California Constitution. I disagree and therefore dissent.
*268In Hartzell v. Connell (1984) 35 Cal.3d 899, 905 [201 Cal.Rptr. 601, 679 P.2d 35] (hereafter Hartzell), we held the free school guaranty applicable to “all activities which constitute an ‘integral fundamental part of the elementary and secondary education’ or which amount to ‘ “necessary elements of any school’s activity” ’ ” (quoting Bond v. Ann Arbor School District (1970) 383 Mich. 693, 702 [178 N.W.2d 484, 41 A.L.R.3d 742].) Hartzell held that charging fees for extracurricular activities violated the free school guaranty even though the activities did not yield academic credit. We reasoned that the activities in question, which included sports, music, and drama, contributed to the educational process by imparting not only specific skills but also leadership and a sense of a collective endeavor. Thus, whether or not a course yielded academic credit did not alone determine if it was integral to the schooling process.
The present case presents even more compelling reasons for finding a violation of the free school guaranty. If the fees in Hartzell threatened free schooling by endangering noncredit cultural development, the fees imposed here on school transportation go even further by threatening to abort the educational opportunity itself. In Hartzell, discussing low-income families that may not qualify for or be aware of the fee-waiver program, we stated that a student’s opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities “cannot be made to depend upon his or her family’s decision whether to pay a fee or buy a toaster.” (Hartzell, supra, 35 Cal.3d at p. 912.)
That pronouncement applies even more strongly to the present case. The very act of sending a child to school should not be foreclosed because the choice comes down to busfare or grocery money. It is common knowledge that these are difficult economic times, a fact that probably explains why a number of school districts have resorted to charging transportation fees. However, to try to save public money by instituting measures that threaten education for low-income children is not only shortsighted, it is violative of the democratic principles that give our political system its legitimacy.
The majority appear to conclude that unlike textbooks or teachers’ salaries, “transportation is not an essential element of school activity.” (Maj. opn., ante, p. 263.) Certainly transportation in and of itself is not essential to education; but transportation to and from school is essential to education because it is a prerequisite to it. For the student who cannot walk to school and cannot afford public or private transportation, a school bus is as essential to the process of education as the school building, the desk, the blackboard and the teacher.
As Justice Rutledge, joined by Justices Frankfurter, Jackson, and Burton, eloquently observed: “Without buildings, without equipment, without library, textbooks and other materials, and without transportation to bring *269teacher and pupil together in such an effective teaching environment, there can be not even the skeleton of what our times require. Hardly can it be maintained that transportation is the least essential of these items, or that it does not in fact aid, encourage, sustain and support, just as they do, the very process which is its purpose to accomplish. No less essential is it, or the payment of its cost, than the very teaching in the classroom or payment of the teacher’s sustenance. Many types of equipment, now considered essential, better could be done without.” (Everson v. Board of Education (1946) 330 U.S. 1, 48 [91 L.Ed. 711, 740, 67 S.Ct. 504, 168 A.L.R. 1392] (dis. opn. of Rutledge, J.).) The majority in Everson declared nothing that disagreed with the foregoing observation of Justice Rutledge. Indeed, the bare majority went so far as to approve public funding of transportation to private schools.
California cases have also emphasized the importance of transportation in the education process. (See, e.g., San Francisco Unified School District v. Johnson (1971) 3 Cal.3d 937, 959-960, fn. 29 [92 Cal.Rptr. 309, 479 P.2d 669]: “[t]he educational structure of California is not, and cannot be, so designed that every pupil is provided with a school within walking distance of his home. In rural areas almost all students travel by school bus; in urban regions the attendance zones of secondary schools often exceed a walking radius”; Bowker v. Baker (1946) 73 Cal.App.2d 653, 660 [167 P.2d 256], declaring that the function of free school transportation is to induce pupil attendance.) The majority’s attempt to distinguish school transportation from textbooks, teachers’ salaries and other elements of the educational process is unpersuasive.
Nor are the fees justified by the fact that school districts are not required to provide transportation. In Hartzell, supra, 35 Cal.3d 899, extracurricular activities were provided at the school’s discretion, but that fact did not resolve the issue of permissibility of fee charges. Apart from the basic curriculum, much is left to the discretion of individual school districts. It is inconsistent with the free school guaranty to hold that where there is discretion there may automatically be fees. Nor am I persuaded by the speculative argument that without bus fees, transportation will be terminated entirely to the detriment of the indigent and handicapped; nearly a decade has passed since Hartzell was decided and extracurricular activities have not vanished.
Finally, fee waivers for the “indigent” cannot save the statute. The Constitution guarantees free schooling to all, not just to indigents. Thus, the presence or absence of a waiver is irrelevant to the free school clause issue. Even were this not the case, the potential for fee waivers for the indigent *270does not allay any of the concerns discussed above because Education Code section 39807.5 leaves the task of defining “indigent” to the governing boards of the school districts themselves; thus many families not fitting whatever definition the districts decide to adopt may still have difficulty making ends meet. A waiver for the poorest families, such as those receiving public aid, still requires the “working poor” to cut necessities in order to educate their children.1 If it comes down to a choice between grocery money and busfare, the child will be the loser.
Contrary to the opinions in Michigan and North Dakota relied upon by the majority, the importance of transportation to the process of education was emphasized by this court a quarter of a century ago in Manjares v. Newton (1966) 64 Cal.2d 365 [49 Cal.Rptr. 805, 411 P.2d 901]. In that case we ordered bus service to be provided to a group of pupils arbitrarily excluded by the district. We dismissed the claim that “economic considerations” justified the exclusion (id. at pp. 374-375), observing that “society has a compelling interest in affording children an opportunity to attend school.” (Id. at p. 375.) Clearly we were not speaking in terms of curriculum or even extracurricular activities, but rather simply of the opportunity to attend school, which encompasses the means necessary to get there.
Transportation to school is a “necessary element” of schooling within the meaning of Hartzell, supra, 35 Cal.3d at page 905. I would therefore reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeal. As I believe the statute violates the free school guaranty, I see no need to reach the equal protection issue.

There have been actual instances in which school districts premised eligibility for fee waivers on receipt of welfare assistance. (Salazar v. Honig (May 10, 1988) Cal.App. B026629.) As the majority note, we ordered that opinion unpublished on September 1, 1988.