Board Attorney: Bus Fee Could Violate Maryland Constitution

Here is the second of three newspaper articles about the attempt of the MCPS Board of Education to charge students a fee to ride public school buses back in 1996. In this article The Washington Post reported on the advice of the Board of Education's own attorney that a bus fee could violate the Maryland Constitution's guarantee of a free education. 

Montgomery Bus Fee May Violate Md. Constitution
[FINAL Edition]
Dan Beyers.
The Washington Post (pre-1997 Fulltext).
Washington, D.C.:
Feb 22, 1996 
pg. B.04
Copyright The Washington Post Company

The attorney for the Montgomery County school board has advised board members that they may have overstepped their authority when they approved a plan to charge students $50 a year for bus transportation.

School board attorney Judith S. Bresler, in an opinion made public yesterday by two board members, said it is likely that Maryland law requires local school boards to get state approval for such a fee and that even if they got the General Assembly's approval, it could violate the Maryland Constitution's guarantee of a free education.

...Bresler's opinion comes after an attorney for the state Board of Education suggested that a transportation fee would, at a minimum, require the approval of the General Assembly. It also follows a move by the leaders of Montgomery's legislative delegation to introduce a bill prohibiting the fee.

But some board members defended the fee, saying it is needed to pay for Head Start, kindergarten and other programs cut because of the county's continued economic woes. Board member Stephen N. Abrams (2nd District), a supporter of the fee, said he was not ready to give up.

"Frankly, I'm not dissuaded by the opinion," Abrams said.

In approving the fee 5 to 2, board members cited a 1992 Maryland attorney general's opinion that suggested the General Assembly could choose to pass legislation imposing the bus fees. But Bresler took issue with that opinion because, she said, it relies on court decisions stemming from cases in California, Michigan and North Dakota.

Maryland law may be more restrictive, she said. A 1977 Maryland court decision found that transportation of pupils was "an integral part of education as we know it today."

"The current statutory framework in Maryland would appear to preclude the imposition of user fees for school bus transportation to public school students by a local board of education," Bresler wrote in a Feb. 15 memo shared with board members Tuesday night.