Noted atheist Rob Sherman filed lawsuit against school district

January 30, 10:12 AMAtheism ExaminerTrina Hoaks

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Rob Sherman, who is a well known atheist, filed a lawsuit yesterday.

Many of us remember that Sherman was in the news not long ago when he filed and won a lawsuit against his daughter's school district which unconstitutionally held a "moment of silence."

This lawsuit is a bit different, though. It has nothing to do with religion. He is suing the school district for charging students for a drivers education class and using a portion of the funds to pay teacher's salaries and the like.

From Rob Sherman's Web site:

This time, Dawn and I are challenging the widespread scam by public high schools of balancing their budgets by illegally charging high school students tuition for Driver's Ed. Rather than raising property taxes on people who can vote school board members out of office, the schools are balancing their budgets by withholding from students who aren't old enough to vote, access to their precious driver's licenses unless the students pay hundreds of dollars in fees to help cover staffing costs. This is blatantly unconstitutional, in violation of Article X, Section 1, of the Illinois Constitution, which says, in pertinent part, that "Education in public schools through the secondary level shall be free." The Supreme Court of Illinois has interpreted that to mean that "instruction in the subjects taught, without a tuition charge, provides free schools." Section 27-23 of the Illinois School Code makes Driver's Ed one of the subjects covered by that requirement.

According to a report on Daily Herald, Sherman said:

For me, it's not about the money; I'm a multimillionaire. There are a lot of students who haven't taken driver's education because they can't afford the $350. It's our job as taxpayers to fund teachers salaries and benefits, not kids who are trying to learn to drive.

The same report reported that certain children have been admitted into the class at no cost.

It was reported that it costs approximately $1300 for each child to go through the class and that the $350 fee, obviously, falls short of covering that cost.

Rob Sherman was the reporter who alleged that George Bush, Sr. referred to atheists as un-American back in the 1980s.