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An Indianapolis mom is suing the Indiana State Board of Education over a policy designed to protect brick-and-mortar schools from funding cuts when students began virtual learning as a pandemic precaution. The suit seeks to increase funding for online-only schools, where the litigant sends her children. Professor Brad Desnoyer talked about the lawsuit for a story in Indiana Chalkbeat.

The state typically provides 85% of the per-pupil allocation for virtual schools. With the rise in online learning in Fall 2020, school leaders feared a loss of funding. The state board used emergency powers to approve a policy that increased per-pupil funding for students who would ordinarily be in classrooms but for the pandemic. The lawsuit seeks to increase the amount of funding available for students who already attended virtual schools.

Professor Desnoyer guesses the suit will be dismissed quickly. For courts to overturn this rule, he would have to be considered arbitrary and capricious, he said in the story.

“This is not an arbitrary rule. This decision was made to keep our schools funded,” Professor Desnoyer said in the piece. “What she’s asking for is so detrimental to the students of Indiana that I don’t see it happening.”

Professor Desnoyer is an associate clinical professor of law at IU McKinney. He joined the faculty in 2018 and teaches Legal Communication and Analysis I and II and Education Law.