Columbia Public Schools can continue to challenge the 2024 law that allows charter schools to operate in Boone County, a Cole County Circuit Court judge ruled this week.
The district sued the state in December to challenge the law passed by the state legislature, claiming it is unconstitutional.
Judge Emily Fretwell said in her ruling that pursuing a remedy on the issue of constitutionality is the avenue available to aggrieved parties to challenge laws enacted by the General Assembly.
"To hold that the state is immune from actions in equity would effectively insulate the legislature from any action scrutinizing its adherence to mandatory constitutional procedures for enacting legislation," she wrote.
The ruling did, however, defeat the district's claim that the legislature failed to provide required public notice before passing the law. The judge decided the district waited too long to mount a challenge on that basis.
Since the law took effect in August 2024, a charter school called Frontier STEM Academy has been approved to open in 2027. Approval of another charter school proposed by Job Point and devoted to workforce training is still pending.
The court still must decide whether the charter school expansion law is constitutional. The next hearing on the case is Aug. 3.
