What's this lawsuit about?

The Hancock v. Driscoll lawsuit was filed because . . .

In many Massachusetts school districts, schools have not reached the basic standard of education required by the Massachusetts Constitution. The 1993 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision in McDuffy v. Secretary of Education mandated that this standard be defined and reached.

There are many areas in which Massachusetts needs to make significant improvement to provide a baseline education, including: class sizes, attracting high quality teachers and administrative personnel in poorer school districts and funding early education programs.

Massachusetts is far behind other states with knowledge-based economies in providing state-funded education resources.

Who is involved?

The Plaintiffs: The plaintiffs are students who attend public schools in 19 Massachusetts school districts. At trial, the evidence will focus on four of those districts--Brockton, Lowell, Springfield and Winchendon-because these districts are typical of the others in which the plaintiffs attend school.The full list of plaintiff districts includes:Barnstable, Belchertown, Brockton, East Bridgewater, Fitchburg, Gill-Montague Regional, Holyoke, Leicester, Lowell, Lynn, Mashpee, Orange, Revere, Rockland, Sandwich, Springfield, Taunton, Uxbridge and Winchendon.

Their attorneys are Michael D. Weisman, Rebecca P. (Betsy) McIntyre, Peter E. Montgomery, and Emiliano Mazlen of Weisman & McIntyre and Alan Rom of the Appleseed Foundation.

The Defendant: The named defendants are the Commonwealth's Commissioner of Education, James A. Peyser and other members of the Massachusetts Board of Education, and Michael Sentence, the Advisor on Education in the Office of the Governor, in their official capacities. The Commonwealth will be represented by lawyers from the Attorney General's office.

The Case: The full name of the lawsuit is Julie Hancock et al. v. Commissioner of Education Driscoll et al. and the fact-finding portion of the case was heard by Judge Margot Botsford in Suffolk Superior Court.

To learn more about the history of the case and other background, click below.

Case Related Documents

Powerpoint Presentation on Case From May 2004

Evidence from the case