From the Columbus Dispatch, Friday, June 28, 2002
Catherine Candisky
Dispatch Statehouse Reporter
Ron Schwane / Associated Press

States across the nation are free to give parents tax dollars for religious- school tuition

Rosa-Linda Demore-Brown, left, executive director of the Cleveland Parents of School Choice, celebrates with Cleveland mother Roberta Kitchen after the school vouchers were ruled constitutional.

now that a sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court has upheld Cleveland's voucher program.

In one of the most significant education decisions in years, the court's conservative majority found voucher programs permissible as long as parents have a choice of sending their children to both religious and secular schools.

The 5-4 decision, the last of the court's term, appeared to validate similar programs in Milwaukee and Florida, and pave the way for others across the country.

"This decision removes a major impediment to school-choice legislation around the country,'' said Clint Bolick, vice president of the Washington-based Institute for Justice, a conservative group that helped Ohio defend the program.

"We expect to see major legislative efforts at the federal and state levels over the coming year. At least half a dozen states, including Colorado and Texas, should see significant action after the November elections.''

Conservatives have pushed voucher programs, saying they provide a choice for poor parents whose children otherwise would be trapped in failing public- school districts such as Cleveland's.

Opponents argued that vouchers siphon needed cash from financially strapped public systems. They vowed yesterday that the fight will shift from the courts to state legislatures.

"The public remains opposed to vouchers, and we are prepared to fight these efforts, state by state,'' said Ralph G. Neas president of People for the American Way and co-counsel for the Cleveland parents who challenged the program.

In its ruling yesterday, the court rejected claims by a Cleveland teachers union, parents and civil libertarians that the program violated the Constitution by using tax dollars to advance religion.

"The Ohio program is neutral in all respects toward religion,'' Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for the majority. "It is part of a general and multifaceted undertaking by the state of Ohio to provide educational opportunities to the children of a failed school district.''

Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas agreed.

Although most students use vouchers to attend religious schools, the program passes constitutional muster because their parents have plenty of nonreligious education choices, including charter schools, magnet schools and tutorial programs, the court found.

"The incidental advancement of a religious mission, or the perceived endorsement of a religious message, is reasonably attributable to the individual recipient, not to the government, whose role ends with the disbursement of benefits,'' Rehnquist wrote.

In a strong dissent, Justice David H. Souter disputed that parents had ample choices.

"There is . . . no way to interpret the 96.9 percent of current voucher money going to religious schools as reflecting a free and genuine choice by the families that apply for vouchers,'' he wrote.

Others dissenting -- Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens -- warned that the ruling could lead to religious unrest by blurring the constitutional separation of church and state and creating conflict among religious groups competing for public money.

"Whenever we remove a brick from the wall that was designed to separate religion and government, we increase the risk of religious strife and weaken the foundation of our democracy,'' Stevens wrote in a separate dissent.

Enacted by the Ohio General Assembly in 1995, the $7.6 million voucher program provides poor Cleveland parents up to $2,250 a year per child for tuition to the participating private schools of their choice.

About 4,202 of the district's 57,000 students in grades kindergarten through eight participate. Most of the schools that accept vouchers are religion-based.

For parents receiving vouchers, the ruling came as a blessing.

"I love everything about this city except the schools,'' said Lisa Nemeth, a 40-year- old mother relying on vouchers to send her two children to a private parochial school near their home in Old Brooklyn on Cleveland's west side.

"I am not anti-public schooling; I am anti- Cleveland public schools. . . . Two out of three children do not graduate in the city schools. I cannot imagine sending my children into a situation like that.''

Laura Gambrell, 32, said the ruling means she won't have to return to her second job to afford the combined $4,500 tuition for her two children to attend a Catholic school.

"I just don't consider the Cleveland schools an option,'' she said. "Maybe this ruling will make the schools improve and draw back the students that they've lost.''

U.S. Sen. George V. Voinovich, who pushed the program as governor, said vouchers give low-income parents the same education options enjoyed by wealthier ones.

How school vouchers work in Cleveland

The Scholarship and Tutoring Program in Cleveland is open to kindergartners through eighth-graders. Students are chosen randomly, but preference is given to families with incomes less than twice the federal poverty level and to students with a sibling already enrolled in the program. Scholarships may be used at any participating religious and other private schools within the Cleveland Municipal School District or public schools in participating adjacent districts.

Source: Associated Press

"School choice isn't a cure-all but is an important option that I believe disadvantaged families should have as they seek to find the best educational opportunities for their children,'' he said.

Ohio Attorney General Betty D. Montgomery said, "I think you could see this opinion spawn a variety of other voucher programs.''

State Republican leaders were downplaying any rapid expansion of the program yesterday.

"In light of the ruling, I believe the state should continue to evaluate the tuition- voucher program before considering its expansion into other low-performing districts,'' Gov. Bob Taft said.

Sen. Robert A. Gardner, R-Madison, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said lawmakers are more likely to expand the state's charter-school program, which provides tax dollars to private operators of alternative public schools.

Charter schools are held more fiscally and academically accountable than private schools that take vouchers.

Vouchers "sound warm and fuzzy, but we need to be able to look at the empirical data and see how they're doing on proficiency tests,'' Gardner said.

Opponents don't expect the program to proceed with caution.

"I have no doubt this will be on the legislative agenda with efforts to increase the amount of the voucher and expand the program to other urban districts,'' said Warren G. Russell, deputy director of the Ohio School Board Association.

"The ruling pretty much lays out a guide for the Ohio legislature and others on how do a voucher program constitutionally, and that means continued erosion of public education."

Copyright © 2002, The Columbus Dispatch