Constitutional showdown: Montana school choice case heads to U.S. Supreme Court | News | bozemandailychronicle.com - Gail Schontzler:
January 19, 2020 - "The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit brought on behalf of Kendra Espinoza and two other Kalispell-area mothers whose children attend Stillwater Christian School. Their lawsuit against the Montana Department of Revenue concerns a school choice program that ... provided $3 million a year to be spent on tax credits for individuals and business taxpayers who donated up to $150 to a new scholarship program for private school students.
"The Montana Supreme Court ruled the program violated the state’s constitution, which bars spending any public money directly or indirectly to support religious schools [and] struck down the entire scholarship program, a decision now being challenged in the nation’s highest court.
"The scholarship program is small, helping about 40 or 50 students a year — 94% of whom attend Christian schools, according to court filings. But the potential impact of the Espinoza case is huge. The Institute for Justice, the nonprofit legal advocacy group that has represented the Kalispell mothers from the start of their lawsuit, called it 'one of the most important education reform cases in the past half century'....
"The Institute for Justice — which has received funding from billionaires Charles and David Koch and the Walton and DeVos families — argues this case could stop Montana’s discrimination against religious options, uphold the free exercise of religion and expand school choice. Opponents, including the nation’s two largest teachers’ unions and liberal groups, argue the Espinoza case threatens public schools and the basic principle of separation of church and state..... Thirty-seven states have constitutional language similar to Montana’s barring aid to religious schools....
"The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling this summer.... Supreme Court rulings in recent years have moved in the direction of allowing public funds to benefit religious schools. In 2017 the court ruled in the Trinity Lutheran Church case that the state of Missouri violated the First Amendment when it excluded churches from a state program to make playgrounds safer because of the state constitution’s strict separation of church and state..... Chief Justice John Roberts ... added, however, that this decision does 'not address religious uses of funding or other forms of discrimination.'"
Read more: https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/constitutional-showdown-montana-school-choice-case-heads-to-u-s/article_e75727cf-8e45-5adc-981e-ab5435d353ec.html
'via Blog this'
January 19, 2020 - "The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit brought on behalf of Kendra Espinoza and two other Kalispell-area mothers whose children attend Stillwater Christian School. Their lawsuit against the Montana Department of Revenue concerns a school choice program that ... provided $3 million a year to be spent on tax credits for individuals and business taxpayers who donated up to $150 to a new scholarship program for private school students.
"The Montana Supreme Court ruled the program violated the state’s constitution, which bars spending any public money directly or indirectly to support religious schools [and] struck down the entire scholarship program, a decision now being challenged in the nation’s highest court.
"The scholarship program is small, helping about 40 or 50 students a year — 94% of whom attend Christian schools, according to court filings. But the potential impact of the Espinoza case is huge. The Institute for Justice, the nonprofit legal advocacy group that has represented the Kalispell mothers from the start of their lawsuit, called it 'one of the most important education reform cases in the past half century'....
"The Institute for Justice — which has received funding from billionaires Charles and David Koch and the Walton and DeVos families — argues this case could stop Montana’s discrimination against religious options, uphold the free exercise of religion and expand school choice. Opponents, including the nation’s two largest teachers’ unions and liberal groups, argue the Espinoza case threatens public schools and the basic principle of separation of church and state..... Thirty-seven states have constitutional language similar to Montana’s barring aid to religious schools....
"The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling this summer.... Supreme Court rulings in recent years have moved in the direction of allowing public funds to benefit religious schools. In 2017 the court ruled in the Trinity Lutheran Church case that the state of Missouri violated the First Amendment when it excluded churches from a state program to make playgrounds safer because of the state constitution’s strict separation of church and state..... Chief Justice John Roberts ... added, however, that this decision does 'not address religious uses of funding or other forms of discrimination.'"
Read more: https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/constitutional-showdown-montana-school-choice-case-heads-to-u-s/article_e75727cf-8e45-5adc-981e-ab5435d353ec.html
'via Blog this'
