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Do Vouchers Violate
the First Amendment?
The 6-3 decision in last term's Good News Bible Club suggested the Court's growing unwillingness to use the 1st Amendment discriminate against religion on the basis of a so-called "wall of separation" (see Richard Garnett's WSJ analysis). And the June 27 decision affirmed it: the Ohio pilot program does not offend the Establishment Clause because it was enacted for a vaid secular purpose. The only "preference" in the law, the Court maintained, is for low income students in crummy inner city schools. The Sixth Circuit case striking down the program on First Amendment grounds The Ohio Supreme Court case upholding it, in part ("the School Voucher Program does not create an unconstitutional link between government and religion"). Is there a correlation between education choice and academic achievement? Report says: you bet |
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In one of the most riveting cases of the
term, the Court considered an Ohio pilot program that gives low-income
Cleveland parents vouchers to offset the costs of private school education.
Participating schools must meet state standards and may not discriminate on the
basis of race or religion. Since most of the private schools receiving
voucher funds are religious, lower courts have considered--and disagreed
over--whether this program is an establishment of religion. We predict the Court
will use these cases as an opportunity to promote federalism: education policy,
after all, is a traditional state and local function. Didn't Justice
Brandeis say something once about a "single courageous state" trying
novel social experiments? 