The nation’s highest court joined the debate on school vouchers, considering Feb. 20 whether the state aid that pays for tuition in religious schools is constitutional.
The discussion in the Supreme Court focused on such issues as the high percentage of Cleveland students who choose religious schools among private school choices and whether parents truly have an array of educational options. The case centers on a pilot program adopted by the Ohio Legislature to aid children of low-income parents who attend troubled public schools.
Judith French, chief counsel for Ohio’s attorney general, asked for the 2000 ruling of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which said the program was unconstitutional because it advances religion, to be overturned. Parents who send their children to private schools receive a maximum of $2,250 per student per year. They sign over a check to the school they select.
Justices considered the percentages of students who have enrolled in the program and chosen religious schools. That number has risen from 96 percent in 1999 to 99 percent in the current school year.
David Young, a Columbus, Ohio, lawyer for parents and schools who benefit from the program, said rather than endorsing religion, the government “was trying to resolve a problem of these disadvantaged, low-income children.”
Solicitor General Theodore Olson argued for the Bush administration, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the voucher program.
(RNS)
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