Cleveland — A federal judge has ruled that Cleveland’s school voucher program violates the constitutionally required separation of church and state. But Judge Soloman Oliver Jr. delayed the effect of his 61-page opinion, pending an appeal of the case to the 6th U.s. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Cleveland dispute is but one example of a growing national debate over the use of tax-funded vouchers to pay tuition at religious schools. Church-state observers say the issue will ultimately have to be settled by the U.S. Supreme court, which in the past year has declined to review several voucher disputes.
Oliver’s Dec. 20 ruling noted that religious schools dominate participation in the Cleveland program. Of the 56 schools registered for the program, 46 are sectarian schools, Oliver said, and 96 percent of the 3,761 students participating in the program attend a sectarian school. Because so many of the schools are “religious in nature,” Oliver said students in the voucher program “have no meaningful choice” between church and nonchurch schools.
He said it is important that students not be “steered toward a religious institution” in choosing between schools in a state-sponsored project.
“Because of the overwhelmingly large numbers of religious versus nonreligious schools participating in the voucher program, beneficiaries cannot make a genuine, independent choice of what school to attend,” Oliver wrote. “A program that is so skewed toward religion necessarily results in indoctrination attributable to the government and provides financial incentives to attend religious schools.”
Oliver also said the Cleveland program lacked adequate safeguards to ensure that funds are used for secular, nonreligious, purpose.
Share with others: