Indiana Voucher Victory
March 26 | Posted by mrossol | American Thought, Party PoliticsChoice. Hope there is more of it.
==============
Indiana passed one of the nation’s most ambitious education reforms in 2011, so naturally teachers unions sued to kill it. The unions lost big Tuesday when the Indiana Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the state’s Choice Scholarship Program is constitutional.
The Indiana State Teachers Association and the National Education Association sued to stop the statewide program, which allows families with household income below 150% of school lunch eligibility to receive vouchers equal to between 50% and 90% of state per-pupil education funding to use at any school. According to the lawsuit in Meredith v. Pence, letting families use the vouchers at religious schools violated the state constitution’s religion clauses.
Ah, no. The Indiana constitution says “No money shall be drawn from the treasury, for the benefit of any religious or theological institution.” But under the Choice Scholarship Program, state dollars go directly to parents who decide where to spend it.
“We find it inconceivable,” the justices wrote, that the framers meant to prohibit government spending from which a religious institution could ultimately benefit. Everything from police protection to city sidewalks benefit religious institutions, but “the primary beneficiary is the public,” and any benefits to religious groups are “ancillary and indirect,” said the ruling. “The direct beneficiaries under the voucher program are the families of eligible students and not the schools selected by the parents for their children to attend.”
For single mom Heather Coffy, one of the Indiana parents represented by the Institute for Justice, the decision means her three children can continue their education at Bishop Chatard High School and St. Monica Catholic School in Indianapolis, and other families will have a chance to embrace similar options. As for the unions, they’ve shown again their concern is their own power, not the well-being of students.
Review & Outlook: Indiana Voucher Victory – WSJ.com.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.