Maryland

BY tune

Published May 25, 2015

Constitutional Provisions on Education

Compelled Support Clause

“[N]or ought any person to be compelled to frequent, or maintain, or contribute, unless on contract, to maintain, any place of worship, or any ministry ….” Maryland Decl. of Rights Art. 36.

Education Articles

“The General Assembly, at its First Session after the adoption of this Constitution, shall by Law establish throughout the State a thorough and efficient System of Free Public Schools; and shall provide by taxation, or otherwise, for their maintenance.” Maryland Const. Art. VIII, § 1.

“The School Fund of the State shall be kept inviolate, and appropriated only to the purposes of Education.” Maryland Const. Art. VIII, § 3.

Case Law Relevant to School Choice

Horace Mann League, Inc. v. Board of Public Works, 220 A.2d 51 (Md. 1966)

In upholding the constitutionality of state grants to colleges for academic buildings, the Maryland Court of Appeals, Maryland’s
highest court, held that “[t]hus it is seen that grants to educational institutions at a level where the state has not attempted to provide universal educational facilities for its citizens have never, in Maryland, been held to be impermissible under Article 36, even though the institutions may be under the control of a religious order.”

Johns Hopkins University v. Williams, 86 A.2d 892 (Md. 1952)

Upholding a loan issued by the state to a private university against a challenge brought under Article III, Section 34, which prohibits the state from securing private debts, the Maryland Court of Appeals held “[t]here is no prohibition in the Constitution against making appropriations to private institutions, provided the purpose is public, or semi-public, and thousands and thousands of dollars are appropriated out of the annual receipts every year.”

Board of Education v. Wheat, 199 A. 628 (Md. 1938), see also Adams v. County Commissioners of St. Mary’s County, 26 A.2d 377 (Md. 1942)

The Maryland Court of Appeals held that using public money to provide transportation for children attending private or parochial schools does not violate Maryland’s Compelled Support Clause because religious institutions would be aided only incidentally as the by-product of proper legislative action to secure the education of children.

St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys v. Brown, 45 Md. 310 (Md. 1876)

A Maryland Court of Appeals held that although the state could not appropriate money to an institution not under state control, it could contract with private and religious institutions for the care, training and education of state wards.