Garcia-Padilla v. Assoc. de Educaction

Filing 920070411

Opinion

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var WPFootnote1 = 'The private schools of Puerto Rico are required by statute to\
operate under a license. P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 18, § 2111. The\
Secretary of Education\'s power to regulate schools is subject to a\
proviso protecting the schools\' authority to develop their academic\
programs. P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 18, § 2117 ("The license to be\
issued by the Secretary by virtue of this subchapter will be\
institutional in nature and shall include the authorization to\
issue diplomas, certificates or degrees up to the maximum academic\
level established in the license. Provided, [t]hat a private\
educational institution, by virtue of the license issued, and\
pursuant to academic autonomy this chapter provides, protects and\
fosters, may establish new academic programs, additional courses or\
any other academic measure, provided the same does not exceed the\
maximum academic level authorized by the license, nor modifies its\
institutional objectives or mission.").\
'

var WPFootnote2 = 'By contrast, Puerto Rico\'s Education Code provides that "[a]ny\
natural or juridical person who operates a private educational\
institution as defined in this subchapter without the proper\
license provided therein shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon\
conviction thereof, shall be punished with a fine not to exceed\
five hundred (500) dollars." P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 18, § 2124.\
'

var WPFootnote3 = 'Textbooks comprise more than their bound volumes alone. \
Textbooks are often accompanied by resource kits, which include\
audio and visual multimedia materials such as audio cassettes,\
CD-ROMs, DVDs, floppy disks, and transparencies. Moreover,\
textbooks are frequently accompanied by related workbooks, which\
are usually textbook-edition-specific. These workbooks are often\
used for lesson enforcement, preparation, or extra practice in\
correlation with a specific in-class lesson.\
'

var WPFootnote4 = 'Justice Frankfurter\'s articulation of academic freedom as\
institutional autonomy was later adopted by Justice Powell in his\
separate yet controlling opinion in Bakke. 438 U.S. at 312. \
Justice Powell held that even though the Fourteenth Amendment and\
Title VI prohibited a state from penalizing an applicant on the\
basis of race, the First Amendment right to academic freedom\
empowered a state university to take race into account in admitting\
students when doing so in pursuit of the academic goal of a diverse\
student body. Id. at 311-19. Justice Powell relied on the fourth\
of Justice Frankfurter\'s "four essential freedoms" –- the right of\
a university to determine for itself on academic grounds who may be\
admitted to study. Id. at 312. Justice Powell\'s academic freedom\
rationale was later endorsed by a majority of the Supreme Court in\
Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306, 325 (2003).\
'

var WPFootnote5 = 'Although Shelton was the first case in which the Supreme Court\
explicitly applied the protection of academic freedom in the\
secondary education context, traces of the Court\'s willingness to\
protect the rights of primary and secondary schools to teach as\
they please existed as early as 1923. In Meyer v. Nebraska, the\
Supreme Court declared a state law prohibiting the teaching of\
foreign languages in private and public schools unconstitutional\
because no legitimate state interest justified the regulation that\
"attempted materially to interfere with the calling of modern\
language teachers, with the opportunities of pupils to acquire\
knowledge, and with the power of parents to control the education\
of their own." 262 U.S. 390, 401-03 (1923).\
\
              Two years later, the Supreme Court struck down a state statute\
requiring all children between the ages of eight and sixteen years\
to attend public school as unconstitutional noting that "[private\
schools] are engaged in a kind of undertaking not inherently\
harmful, but long regarded as useful and meritorious. Certainly\
there is nothing in the present records to indicate that they have\
failed to discharge their obligations to patrons, students, or the\
state." See Pierce v. Soc. of the Sisters of the Holy Names of\
Jesus and Mary, 268 U.S. 510, 534-36 (1925).\
\
              Finally, in Farrington v. Tokushige, the Supreme Court\
addressed the constitutionality of a Hawaii statute heavily\
regulating private schools. 273 U.S. 284 (1927). The Court held\
that the statute went "far beyond mere regulation of privately\
supported schools" because it "[gave] affirmative direction\
concerning the intimate and essential details of such schools,\
intrust[ed] their control to public officers, and den[ied] both\
owners and patrons reasonable choice and discretion in respect of\
teachers, curriculum and text-books." Id. at 297 (emphasis added).\
\
              Although Meyer, Pierce, and Tokushige were decided on due\
process grounds, Meyer, 262 U.S. at 401-03; Pierce, 268 U.S. at\
534-35; Tokushige, 273 U.S. at 298-99, each was decided in the\
1920s, before the Bill of Rights was incorporated into the\
Fourteenth Amendment. Thus, although they do not expressly address\
a right to academic freedom, these cases stand for the proposition\
that "the State may not, consistently with the spirit of the First\
Amendment, contract the spectrum of available knowledge." Griswold\
v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 482 (1965); see also Brown v. Hot,\
Sexy & Safer Prods., Inc., 68 F.3d 525, 533 n.5 (1st Cir.\
1995)(noting that Meyer and Pierce would probably be decided today\
on First Amendment grounds).\
'

var WPFootnote6 = 'There is no doubt of a state\'s heightened interest in regulating\
primary and secondary schools. See Bd. of Educ., Island Trees\
Union Free Sch. Dist. No. 26 v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853, 864 (1982)\
(noting that states have broad discretion in the management of\
secondary education because secondary schools "are vitally\
important in the preparation of individuals for preparation as\
citizens and as vehicles for inculcating fundamental values\
necessary to the maintenance of a democratic political system")\
(quotation marks omitted)). As such, the right to academic freedom\
in secondary education is necessarily more circumscribed than that\
of a university. However, we need not demarcate the precise\
boundaries of academic freedom in primary and secondary schools\
here. Suffice it to say that in this case, the regulation of\
textbooks implicates academic freedom sufficiently to require the\
state to demonstrate that the regulation withstands constitutional\
scrutiny.\
'

var WPFootnote7 = 'Law 116 provides the authority of the "Association or Council of\
Parents" in each private school to approve or reject a private\
school\'s proposed textbook budget. As such, the Association\'s\
members\' acts are performed under color of state law, thus\
constituting acts of the state within the meaning of the Fourteenth\
Amendment. See Bantam Books, Inc. v. Sullivan, 372 U.S. 58, 68\
(1963)(finding that acts and practices of a commission created to\
"encourage morality in youth" were "performed under color of state\
law" and thus were state action).\
'

var WPFootnote8 = 'According to trial testimony, at one point, DACO had contacted\
the Puerto Rico Department of Education regarding the formation of\
a panel to provide the Secretary of DACO with information about\
what constitutes a "significant change" in diverse educational\
subject areas. However, this effort ceased after the change in\
administrations. There is no indication that the institution of\
such a panel will be pursued in the future, nor is it clear that\
the establishment of such a panel would be dispositive of the\
issues raised by this case.\
'

var WPFootnote9 = 'It should also be noted that by allowing parents to purchase the\
old edition of a textbook when DACO determines that a change is\
insignificant, DACO in effect imposes a disincentive for schools to\
choose new editions. Faced with the prospect of having to teach\
out of two different books, or worse yet, of having to litigate\
what constitutes a "significant" change, teachers may well decide\
to keep the old version (if they can find enough copies) rather\
that choosing the new one for pedagogical reasons. See Crowley v.\
McKinney, 400 F.3d 965, 969 (7th Cir. 2005) (noting that litigation\
over the correctness of a school\'s decisions "would be bound to\
interfere with the educational mission. . . . not only by\
increasing schools\' legal fees but also and more ominously by\
making school administrators and teachers timid because [they are]\
fearful of being entangled in suits by wrathful parents rebuffed in\
their efforts to superintend their children\'s education").\
'

var WPFootnote10 = 'This problem is exacerbated by DACO\'s questionable competence\
in the area it seeks to regulate. Given DACO\'s general mandate to\
"defend and implement the rights of the consumer, to restrain the\
inflationary trends; as well as the establishment and inspection of\
a price control over the goods and services for use and\
consumption," P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 3, § 341b, we express serious\
doubts as to its institutional competence to regulate academia\
effectively, mindful of the complexity inherent in that endeavor. \
See Cuesnongle, 713 F.2d at 886 ("The constitutional issue, of\
course, is not the simple one of whether DACO was wrong, but the\
larger one of whether and to what extent a university, engaged in\
the highly important and complex enterprise of teaching, should\
properly be subject to state regulation by an administrative body\
established to protect consumers from defective products . . . ."). \
As the district court noted, "private schools are better qualified\
to determine whether a change in an edition is significant because,\
unlike DACO, the private schools have expertise in pedagogical\
methods and the substantive academic fields under review, and are\
well acquainted with their institution\'s unique educational\
mission, philosophy, and methodology." García Padilla, 408 F.\
Supp. 2d at 77.\
\
              The concern regarding institutional competence in government\
interference with academia is supported by the judiciary\'s\
longstanding reluctance to meddle with the discretion of academics,\
either on substantive or procedural grounds, when they make bona\
fide academic decisions. See Regents of the University of Michigan\
v. Ewing, 474 U.S. at 226 ("[Courts have a reluctance] to trench on\
the prerogatives of state and local educational institutions and\
[a] responsibility to safeguard their academic freedom, a special\
concern of the First Amendment." (internal quotation marks\
omitted)).\
'

var WPFootnote11 = 'Nor is it clear that DACO could at this point in the litigation\
supplement the information it provided to the district court. See\
Fed. R. App. P. 10(a).\
'

var WPFootnote12 = 'It is even difficult to discern what the complaints mean, let\
alone how Regulation 6458 will address them. How are these prices\
excessive? Excessive in relation to what? The absence of\
standards against which we might be able to judge the need for\
consumer protection legislation in the textbook publishing industry\
renders DACO\'s assertion of a substantial state interest mere\
speculation.\
'

var WPFootnote13 = '"Private school" means "any private educational institution\
which with or without profit motives, religious or secular, devotes\
[sic] to the education of preschool, elementary, and intermediate,\
and/or secondary, or special education, within the territorial\
limits of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico." Law 116, Art. II(b). \
Law 116 defines "Association or Council of Parents and Teachers" to\
mean "groups of parents and teachers belonging to a private school\
authorized to operate in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico." Id. at\
Art. II(a).\
'

var WPFootnote14 = 'Parents\' participation in the textbook selection approval\
process is apparently limited by an exception providing that\
"[n]othing provided by this law authorizes the Association, Council\
or Assembly of Parents to limit or interfere in any manner in\
regard to textbooks or books with religious context." Law 116,\
Art. V.\
'

var WPFootnote15 = 'Because the private schools did not argue that Law 116 imposed\
a prior restraint on their academic freedom, we will not analyze it\
as such. However, we take this opportunity to note that the law is\
susceptible to such an analysis because it "limits or conditions in\
advance the exercise of protected First Amendment activity." \
Fantasy Book Shop, Inc. v. City of Boston, 352 F.2d 1115, 1120 (1st\
Cir. 1981)(citing Southeastern Promotions, Ltd. v. Conrad, 420 U.S.\
546, 552-58 (1976)). "Any system of prior restraints of expression\
. . . bear[s] a heavy presumption against its constitutional\
validity." Bantam Books, Inc., 372 U.S. at 70. As a prior\
restraint, Law 116 would have to contain "narrow, objective, and\
definite standards" to guide the Association or Council of Parents\
in their decision to approve or reject a private school\'s proposed\
budget. Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement, 505 U.S. 123, 131\
(1992).\
'

var WPFootnote16 = 'We make no judgment as to whether this asserted governmental\
interest is a significant one, except to say that we would require\
more information about the need for parental participation in\
school budgetary determinations before so holding. Nevertheless,\
the district court avoided the question, and so will we.\
'

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