The Philadelphia school board has challenged a recent state-court order requiring it to implement certain desegregation remedies without new state money.
Commonwealth Court Judge Doris A. Smith erred in ordering the remedies without first determining whether the state should be included in the case and forced to help pay for them, the school board’s lawyers argue in an appeal filed last month with the state supreme court. (See Education Week, 12/07/94.)
Although the board endorses and intends to follow most of Judge Smith’s directives, it contends that some are too expensive to implement without new state funding.
The appeal contends that complying with just three of the judge’s 46 directives would require $45 million in new spending in fiscal 1996.
The appeal also argues that some of the judge’s orders usurp the district’s authority and deny it the flexibility it needs to devise educational remedies.
