Thursday, 4:30 PM
Dept. of Education must pay $155,000 for violating First Amendment
By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff
A Superior Court judge has ordered the Massachusetts Department of Education to pay $155,000 in attorney’s fees and other legal costs for violating the First Amendment when it prevented a Belmont author and MCAS opponent from speaking at an education conference in 2001.
The order, made public today, follows the court's ruling last August that the department violated Alfie Kohn's civil rights when it threatened to withdraw funding for the conference if he, a critic of standardized tests, delivered the keynote address.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued on behalf of Kohn, a school principal, a counselor, and a parent who wanted to hear the speech.
"It's very important that the highest education officials in the state respect the Constitution and be willing to engage in debate about the policies they've adopted," said Sarah Wunsch, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. "They shut down disagreement and dissent and that’s a very sad lesson for educators to be teaching."
Kohn did not return calls today seeking comment but said in a written statement that there is an urgent need for a vigorous discussion of the downside of testing at a time when the federal No Child Left Behind law is up for reauthorization.
In addition to awarding the fees, Middlesex Superior Court Judge Hiller Zobel also issued an injunction prohibiting the department from denying future grant money for any conference unless the topic of a speech was clearly unrelated to the subject of the conference.
