St. Joan Antida High Sch., Inc. v. Milwaukee Pub. Sch. Dist.
| Citation | 293 F.Supp.3d 813 |
| Decision Date | 28 February 2018 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 17–CV–413–JPS |
| Parties | ST. JOAN ANTIDA HIGH SCHOOL, INC., Plaintiff, v. MILWAUKEE PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Wisconsin |
Brian W. McGrath, Charles J. Szafir, Libby Sobic, Richard M. Esenberg, Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty Inc., Milwaukee, WI, for Plaintiff.
Calvin V. Fermin, Naomi E. Gehling, City of Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, for Defendant.
This is a case about student busing. The defendant, Milwaukee Public School District ("MPS"), provides busing to qualifying public and private school students in the city of Milwaukee. The plaintiff, St. Joan Antida High School ("SJA"), a private school in Milwaukee, contends that MPS' student transportation policy treats MPS public school students differently and more favorably than it treats similarly-situated private school students.
SJA filed its complaint on March 21, 2017, alleging that MPS has violated its rights and the rights of its students under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. (Docket # 1). SJA also alleged a claim against MPS under a Wisconsin state law, Wis. Stat. § 121.54, which commands school districts in Wisconsin to transport public and private school students with reasonable uniformity. Id.
The parties filed cross motions for summary judgment, and those motions are now fully briefed and ripe for adjudication. (Docket # 16–27, 30–35, 37, 41).1 For the reasons explained below, MPS' motion for summary judgment will be granted, SJA's motion for summary judgment will be denied, and this action will be dismissed.2
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56 states that the "court shall grant summary judgment if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a) ; see Boss v. Castro , 816 F.3d 910, 916 (7th Cir. 2016). A "genuine" dispute of material fact is created when "the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. , 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). The Court construes all facts and reasonable inferences in a light most favorable to the non-movant. Bridge v. New Holland Logansport, Inc. , 815 F.3d 356, 360 (7th Cir. 2016). In assessing the parties' proposed facts, the Court must not weigh the evidence or determine witness credibility; the Seventh Circuit instructs that "we leave those tasks to factfinders." Berry v. Chicago Transit Auth. , 618 F.3d 688, 691 (7th Cir. 2010).
The parties agree that there are no genuine issues of material fact and that this case can be resolved on summary judgment. See (Docket # 32, # 37, and # 39 at 1).3 Before turning to the parties' dispute, though, the Court must begin with a primer on the state law and municipal policy that underlie it.
3.1 Wisconsin Student Transportation Law
Prior to 1967, Wisconsin did not permit public school districts to provide transportation for children attending parochial or private schools. Cartwright v. Sharpe , 40 Wis.2d 494, 162 N.W.2d 5, 8 (1968). In 1967, by virtue of the mandate of a state-wide referendum, the Wisconsin constitution was amended to provide that "[n]othing in this constitution shall prohibit the legislature from providing for the safety and welfare of children by providing for the transportation of children to and from any parochial or private school or institution of learning." Wis. Const. art. I, § 23.
Pursuant to authority provided by that constitutional amendment, the Wisconsin legislature amended the state's student transportation law to provide "transportation for students attending private or parochial schools and public schools upon a reasonably uniform basis." Cartwright , 162 N.W.2d at 8. Under that law, school boards must provide free transportation to elementary and high school students who reside two or more miles from their school, public or private. Wis. Stat. § 121.54(2) ; see also St. John Vianney Sch. v. Bd. of Educ. of Sch. Dist. of Janesville , 114 Wis.2d 140, 336 N.W.2d 387, 390 (1983).
The major exceptions to this law apply to cities. For example, a school board need not provide transportation to students in certain large cities, as defined by the statute, if transportation is otherwise available through a common carrier of passengers. Wis. Stat. § 121.54(1). In that case, the city school board may nonetheless elect to provide transportation under the so-called "city option." Id. Under the city option, "there shall be reasonable uniformity in the transportation furnished such pupils whether they attend public or private schools." Id.
3.2 MPS Student Transportation Policy
MPS has exercised the city option, meaning it can determine its own transportation policies, but must provide transportation with reasonable uniformity to students of public and private schools. MPS, through its Board of Directors, has created a policy for student transportation services, set forth in MPS Administrative Policy 4.04 ("Policy 4.04").4 Policy 4.04, in relevant part, directs that transportation will be provided to Milwaukee-resident students as follows:
MPS Administrative Policy 4.04(2).
As to the deadline for private schools to submit a roster of students who will require busing for the coming school year, the parties agree that, in practice, the deadline is actually July 1. (Docket # 32 at 4–5 and # 37 at 9). Only those students on the roster submitted by the private school receive busing if otherwise eligible. MPS does not apply a roster deadline for students attending MPS schools.
In a subsequent section, the policy prescribes rules for transportation of students who attend MPS schools other than the schools to which they would otherwise be assigned based on their residences (their attendance-district, or "neighborhood," schools) in order to take advantage of programs offered at select MPS schools or to avoid problems such as overcrowding and racial imbalance at their neighborhood schools. Id. at 4.04(5). This section provides, in relevant part:
MPS Administrative Policy 4.04(5).
MPS city-wide schools accept students from, as the name suggests, the entire city of Milwaukee. This is in contrast to MPS neighborhood schools, of which there is one for each attendance area within the city. MPS city-wide schools have special programs or areas of study such as the arts, International Baccalaureate, Montessori, language immersion, or gifted and talented programs. MPS does not offer these special programs in all of its high schools.
3.3 SJA's Application to MPS for Busing
SJA is an independent, private, female-only high school in Milwaukee. It provides its students, a majority of whom are racial minorities, an intellectually challenging college-preparatory International Baccalaureate program of study. SJA's approved attendance area, for the purposes of student transportation under Policy 4.04, is city-wide. For the 2016–17 school year, its enrollment was 145 students.
SJA believes that because its attendance area is city-wide, its students should fall under Section 4.04(5)(a), which, by its terms, applies only to city-wide public school students. That section provides a more generous busing scheme than section 4.04(2)(b), which applies to private school students. Section 4.04(5)(a) provides busing for students who live more than two miles from school, while section 4.04(2)(b) provides busing for students if they live more than two miles from school and more than one mile from public transportation. Additionally, section 4.04(2)(b) includes a requirement that the private school submit a roster of eligible students to MPS before the start of the school year, whereas section 4.04(5)(a)—and all other sections applying to public schools—does not.
On May 14, 2016, prior to the 2016–17 school year, SJA applied to MPS for transportation for SJA students it believed qualified for that benefit under MPS' transportation policy. SJA's initial roster included 62 of the 68 students involved in this case.5 SJA submitted an updated roster on September 29, 2016 that included...
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St. Joan Antida High Sch. Inc. v. Milwaukee Pub. Sch. Dist.
...district court granted MPS’s motion and denied St. Joan’s, reasoning that Policy 4.04’s two restrictions had rational bases. 293 F.Supp.3d 813 (E.D. Wis. 2018). With the constitutional claim dismissed, the district court declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over St. Joan’s state-l......