Friday, August 19, 2011
Maggie Lumpcik
Yahoo!
The Indiana State Teachers Association
has filed a lawsuit against the Indiana school voucher program. The association claims the vouchers are illegal, and so the union is suing the state. The state
won an early victory, however, in the fight on the survival of the program. A judge blocked the teachers' request for an injunction that would have prevented the vouchers from taking effect this fall. The students who have qualified to use vouchers for the upcoming school year are free to go ahead and use them.
Under the voucher program, students can use state money to attend private, including religious, schools. The union is claiming that money coming from the state to religious institutions violates the Indiana constitution. According to Robert Enlow, the president of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, however, "The money follows the child. This is money dedicated to a child's education. This isn't money for a system. The money is not the school's. The money is the child's. And that's the principle we're caring about here." Time will tell which side the Indiana courts agree with in the upcoming legal battle.
How have other voucher programs across the country faired in states where their constitutionality was challenged?
Colorado
Colorado lawmakers passed a school voucher program in 2003. A large group, including parents of many public school students, challenged the program in the state's courts. The Colorado constitution provides school boards in each district control over funds raised in their area. The school voucher program was
found to violate this and was ruled unconstitutional by the Colorado Supreme Court.
Ohio
The Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program is a voucher program in Ohio that came into effect in 1995. Children that are issued vouchers are able to use state money to attend a range of different institutions, including private religious schools. The legal battle over the constitutionality of the program eventually made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2002. The vouchers were
ruled to be constitutional and the program was allowed to continue. President Bush praised the decision as a "landmark ruling and victory for the American family."
Florida
A program that Governor Jeb Bush considered one of his greatest achievements, the Opportunity Scholarship,
was ruled unconstitutional by the Florida courts. Although the Ohio program had been cleared by the U.S. Supreme Court before the Florida Opportunity Scholarship was enacted, the ruling also left states free to rule on their own voucher systems. According to the Florida courts, the state constitution made it illegal for tax payers to finance educational choices outside of the public school system. Florida, however, does support a charter school system and a program that provides school choice vouchers to disabled students.
