BREAKING: U.S. Supreme Court just agreed to take up a case on private school choice.
Maine's private school choice program doesn't allow families to take their children's education dollars to private religious schools
This prohibition discriminates against religious families and flies in the face of the Montana v Espinoza (2020) SCOTUS decision.
SCOTUS decided in Montana v Espinoza (2020) that preventing school choice families from taking their children's education dollars to private schools just because they were religious violated the Free Exercise Clause of the 1st Amendment
Chief Justice John Roberts (Montana v Espinoza, 2020):
"A state need not subsidize private education. But once a state decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious"
Despite the Montana v Espinoza (2020) decision, the 1st U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against the families
The court argued Maine's program does not discriminate based on the school's religious "status" - just based on religious "use"
This is a distinction without a difference.
From the Institute for Justice:
"Like discrimination based on religious status, barring parents from picking religious schools if those schools do religious things clearly violates the Free Exercise Clause."
Maine's program clearly discriminates against religious families by prohibiting them from taking their children's education dollars to private schools just because they provide religious education.
Michael Bindas: "By singling out religion—and only religion—for exclusion from its tuition assistance program, Maine violates the U.S. Constitution.
The state flatly bans parents from choosing schools that offer religious instruction. That is unconstitutional."
Michael Bindas (@IJ): "The Supreme Court now has the opportunity to hold that such religious ‘use’ discrimination in student-aid programs is just as unconstitutional as the religious ‘status’ discrimination it held unconstitutional in Espinoza."
"Democrat Tony Evers recently vetoed a bill that would have expanded educational freedom in the state just when families needed it the most." nationalreview.com/2021/07/wiscon…
"The bottom line is that the education system is supposed to exist to meet the needs of families, not the other way around.
Governor Evers has prioritized the desires of the system over the needs of thousands of students by preventing families from having educational options."
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