Debating Church-State Relations and Related Free-Speech Issues School Voucher Plans Raise Key Church-State Issues This article originally appeared in the National Council for the Social Studies’s periodical Social Education 64.1 (Jan./Feb. 2000): 56. It has been adapted for reissue for our Students in Action feature. Article | Debate | Quotes | Activities | Resources Article One of the fiercest national debates these days is between those who want to reform public education by giving parents more choice in where and how their children are to be educated and those who fear that such reforms will be illusory and in fact counterproductive. These reformers argue that public schools in all too many localities are overly bureaucratic monopolies that have resisted change and failed to educate children. They say that giving parents more choice in how their kids are to be educated—such as through tuition vouchers that they can spend in nonpublic schools, tax credits, tax deductions, and other means—will result in a wider range of options, better education for more kids, and improvements in the public schools as they change to meet the competition posed by religiously affiliated and private schools. Opponents argue that the public schools help transmit the basic values of our society. They point out that public schools are egalitarian institutions that educate all children. They fear that the net effect of school choice will be less funding for public education, less public support for the schools, and fewer opportunities for the children who remain in public schools. Besides these educational and public policy dimensions, vouchers also raise some important legal and constitutional issues. In most communities, religiously affiliated schools are by far the predominant private school option, so voucher plans that permit parents to use funds to educate their children in nonpublic schools tend to benefit religiously affiliated schools. Is this constitutional, or does it violate Thomas Jefferson’s “wall of separation” between church and state that is embodied in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as well as the constitutions of many states? This article will examine the school choice debate largely through the prism of this constitutional question. Voucher Plan Variations The best-known voucher programs are those in Milwaukee and Cleveland. They came into being because of the widespread belief that the schools in these cities were failing to educate students, particularly the economically disadvantaged. The programs are similar but have noteworthy differences. In Milwaukee, students are eligible if their family income is no more than 175 percent of the federal poverty level. About 65,000 to 70,000 of the district’s children meet this standard. Participation in the voucher program is limited to 15 percent of the enrollment of the school system, about 15,700 students, or about a quarter of those eligible. The program is funded by state school aid that would otherwise have gone to the Milwaukee Public School system. About 80 nonpublic schools in Milwaukee participate in the program. About 30 of these are secular, but the vast majority of voucher students are enrolled in Catholic schools because they are more affordable and have opened more slots for voucher students. Students are selected by the schools through a lottery. The state issues a check made payable to the school and the parent of the student. The check covers the amount the state spends per-pupil in the Milwaukee Public Schools—about $4,900—or less if the private school’s operating costs are less. The check is endorsed by the parent and used by the school for that student’s expenses. Cleveland also has a lottery, with a preference for low-income children, for scholarships worth 90 percent of tuition (up to $2,500) at participating private schools. About 3,800 students (nearly 5 percent of the public school enrollment) currently use vouchers. Some voucher plans have a very different origin. For more than 100 years, Maine and Vermont have provided tuition subsidies for children in rural school districts that do not have their own public high schools, or, in some cases, elementary schools. In Vermont about 18 percent of the state’s high school population live in one of these “tuitioning” towns. Students receive tuition—up to the average amount of public per-pupil funding—to attend public schools in adjacent school districts or private schools. At one time, both states permitted parents to spend their tuition grants at religiously affiliated schools, but at present, neither state provides tuition for religiously affiliated schools. Constitutional Dimensions The roots of today’s debate over whether vouchers violate the separation of church and state go back centuries, to religious dissenters trying to establish a toehold on the shores of a new continent. Whether as Pilgrims coming to New England, Quakers coming to Pennsylvania, or Catholics coming to Maryland, they risked everything to get away from an established religion not of their choice to find true religious freedom. The Framers of the U.S. Constitution knew this heritage well and wanted to preserve freedom of religion in the new nation. At the same time, they wanted to prevent the “establishment” of any church. In England and most of Europe, an established church was explicitly favored under the law and was supported by everyone’s taxes. The Framers wanted to assure that that would never happen here. Consequently, in the First Amendment there are two clauses that attempt to accomplish both goals: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …” (As a result of the Fourteenth Amendment, these protections are now applied to state and local governments as well.) The religion clauses of the First Amendment may look clear, but interpreting these 16 words has taken hundreds of Supreme Court cases. Article Continues>> Student Central | Students in Action Debating Church-State Relations and Related Free-Speech Issues *Related Articles/Resources*