Anna Barrera v. Hubert Wheeler

475 F.2d 1338
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedApril 11, 1973
Docket72-1440
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 475 F.2d 1338 (Anna Barrera v. Hubert Wheeler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Anna Barrera v. Hubert Wheeler, 475 F.2d 1338 (8th Cir. 1973).

Opinions

LAY, Circuit Judge.

We are presented on this appeal with significant questions relating to the lawful programming and proper allocation of funds to educationally deprived school children, both public and private, under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, 20 U.S.C. §§ 241a-241m, 242-244 (1972).1

The plaintiffs, suing individually and on behalf of their minor children, are parents of educationally deprived children who attend non-public schools in the State of Missouri. This class suit was commenced on April 6, 1970, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri against the State Commissioner of Education and the eight members of the Missouri [1341]*1341Board . of Education. The plaintiffs claim that Title I funds are being arbitrarily denied to non-public school children in Missouri. In seeking injunctive relief plaintiffs assert violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments and a denial of their civil rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

Plaintiffs originally prayed for an injunction restraining defendants from continued violations of the Act as well as for an accounting of misapplied funds totalling over $13 million received and expended from 1966 through 1969. The trial court initially dismissed plaintiffs’ action because of their alleged failure to exhaust administrative remedies and because it believed the federal court should abstain from exercising jurisdiction since the case involved unsettled questions of state law. This court held these findings to be erroneous and reversed and remanded the case to the district court for trial. Barrera v. Wheeler, 441 F.2d 795 (8 Cir. 1971). Upon remand of the case plaintiffs filed an application for preliminary injunction on October 12, 1971. In a pretrial order on January 18, 1972, the trial court ordered a separate trial as to issuance of the injunction and limited the issues as follows:

1. Whether Title I, ESEA, and the criteria established thereunder by the United States Commissioner of Education, requires that educational benefits provided by Title I be made available to educationally deprived children attending private schools on a basis that is equitable in quality, scope and opportunity, to those available to educationally deprived children attending public schools and that there must be an equitable sharing of educational resources provided by Title I so that the amount expended for each Title I project as to an educationally deprived child attending a private school be as nearly equal as possible to the amount so expended as to each educationally deprived child attending a public school;
2. Whether the defendants may be excused from complying with the requirements of Title I, ESEA, and the criteria established thereunder by the United States Commissioner of Education, relating to the participation of educationally deprived children attending private schools, by reliance upon any interpretation of Missouri state constitutional provisions, statutes, regulations or state court decisions; and
3. Whether it is lawful to make public personnel, who are employed to implement Title I projects, available on private school premises during regular school hours in order to provide special services to educationally deprived children attending private schools.

Upon trial of those issues the district court, in an unpublished opinion, denied injunctive relief and held that whether Missouri state law “prohibits the use of any money” for teachers to be employed in private schools was not necessary to be decided in the case. The court concluded that although there undoubtedly has been inequitable expenditures of Title I funds between educationally deprived children in public and non-public schools in some local school districts, such inequity could be rectified by private school authorities requesting their “equitable share of dollar aid” for private school pupils to attend after-school and summer school instructional programs.2

[1342]*1342We conclude that the district court’s holding does not properly meet plaintiffs’ lawful challenge and fails to properly interpret Title I in conformity with the Act’s intended purpose. We reverse and remand with directions to grant certain equitable relief.

TITLE I AND ITS REGULATIONS

In 1965 Congress recognized that there were over five million children living in families whose income was less than $2,000 a year.3 The adverse poverty of these children was found to lead directly to educational neglect resulting oftentimes in human frustration, delinquency and crime. Congress further realized that the impact of poverty and financial hardship was not confined solely to public school children. Consequently, when Title I was drafted Congress expressly required the inclusion of nonpublic school children by conditioning any grant upon the proviso that:

“[T]o the extent consistent with the number of educationally deprived children in the school district of the local educational agency who are enrolled in private elementary and secondary schools, such agency has made provisions for including special educational services and arrangements (such as dual enrollment, educational radio and television, and mobile educational services and equipment) in which such children can participate . . . .”

20 U.S.C. § 241e(a)(2) (1972).

The Act made it the strict responsibility of the local educational agency to plan and administer programs that would meet the particularized needs of all educationally disadvantaged children.4 Thus, the undisputed purpose of Title I was to benefit the educationally deprived child whether attending a public or a non-public school.5

Upon passage of the Act the United States Commissioner of Education pro[1343]*1343vided by detailed regulation that educationally deprived children in private schools be afforded “genuine opportunities” to participate in Title I programs “comparable” to the programs available in public schools.6 In March, 1968, the Commissioner set out revised criteria for the approval of Title I applications based upon the law and the existing regulations which stated:

“The applicant’s assessment of needs of children at various grade and age levels must include the children in the eligible public school attendance areas who are enrolled in private schools. This assessment is to be carried out in consultation with private school authorities and to provide the basis for (a) determining the special services in which private school children will have genuine opportunities to participate, and (b) selecting the private school children for whom such services are to be provided.
“The needs of private school children in the eligible areas may require dif[1344]*1344ferent services and activities.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Pulido v. Cavazos
728 F. Supp. 574 (W.D. Missouri, 1989)
Wamble v. Bell
598 F. Supp. 1356 (W.D. Missouri, 1984)
Mallory v. Barrera
544 S.W.2d 556 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1976)
Opinion No. Oag 44-76, (1976)
65 Op. Att'y Gen. 126 (Wisconsin Attorney General Reports, 1976)
Anna Barrera, Etc. v. Hubert Wheeler, Etc.
531 F.2d 402 (Eighth Circuit, 1976)
Wheeler v. Barrera
417 U.S. 402 (Supreme Court, 1975)
Anna Barrera v. Hubert Wheeler
475 F.2d 1338 (Eighth Circuit, 1973)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
475 F.2d 1338, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anna-barrera-v-hubert-wheeler-ca8-1973.