Funding rules weighed
Court has been backing individual freedoms
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on Wednesday in a case that could make it easier to use public money to pay for religious schooling in many states.
WASHINGTON – A Supreme Court that seems more favorable to religionbased discrimination claims is set to hear a case that could make it easier to use public money to pay for religious schooling in many states.
The justices were to hear arguments Wednesday in a dispute over a Montana scholarship program for private K-12 education that also makes donors eligible for up to $150 in state tax credits. Advocates on both sides say the outcome could be momentous because it could lead to efforts in other states to funnel taxpayer money to religious schools.
Montana is among 37 states that have provisions in their state constitutions that bar religious schools from receiving state aid. The Legislature created the credit in 2015 for contributions made to certain scholarship programs for private education. The state’s highest court had struck down the credit as a violation of the constitutional ban. The scholarships can be used at both secular and religious schools, but almost all the recipients attend religious schools.
Kendra Espinoza of Kalispell, Montana, the lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court case, said the state court decision amounts to discrimination against her religious freedom. “They did away with the entire program so that no one could use this money to send their kids to a religious school,” said Espinoza, whose two daughters attend the Stillwater
Christian School in Kalispell, near Glacier National Park.
“These programs are about empowering parents, low-income parents, to make the same educational choices that their well-to-do peers make every day, which is to choose private schools for their kids, if public schools aren’t working for them,” said Richard Komer of the Virginia-based Institute for Justice, which backs school choice programs. Komer represents the Montana parents at the Supreme Court.
For Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the Montana program is part of a nationwide, conservative-backed campaign against public schools. “This is a ruse to siphon off money from public education,” Weingarten said. Teachers unions often oppose choice programs.
Montana is one of 18 states that offer scholarship tax-credit programs, according to Ed-Choice, an organization that promotes school-choice programs. Most have more generous tax credits, one of several ways states have created programs to boost private schools or defray their tuition costs. Others include vouchers, individual tax credits or deductions and education savings accounts.
When the Montana Supreme Court considered the scholarship program, it found that allowing public money to flow to religious schools, even indirectly, ran afoul of the state constitution. But rather than leave the program in place for secular schools, the court struck it down altogether. Its ruling has been put on hold pending a Supreme Court decision.