Down with Public and Up With Private: Supreme Court Rules Cleveland Vouchers Constitutional
Feature Story by Menna Demessie - 7/1/2002
In a sharply divided 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court declared Cleveland school voucher programs constitutional, allowing the city’s 6-year-old pilot program to continue.The program is designed to give parents the option of utilizing a tax-subsidized stipend to send their children to religious or secular schools.
"This decision represents a serious crack in the constitutional wall between church and state, and it’s especially troubling when part of that wall comes crumbling down on Cleveland’s public school children." said People For the American Way Foundation (PFWAF) President Ralph G. Neas. "Cleveland and other urban school systems are in tough financial straits. Giving this voucher program a 'green light' only makes that situation worse."
While voucher advocates say that the programs "give people the choice to spend their tax funds in a school where they can get a good education," as stated by a parent who uses vouchers to send her children to Catholic schools, voucher programs drain resources from public schools, which educate 90% of US children. Fixed costs like rent salaries and buses remain constant, forcing already strapped schools to cut funds for the remaining pupils.
"Despite what advocates of vouchers may say, we cannot rescue troubled public schools by providing a way for students to abandon public schools. Sadly, this decision essentially defunds Cleveland's public schools and leaves parents who want vouchers with no options but parochial education for their children," said Chris Link, Executive Director of the ACLU of Ohio.
With Harvard’s Civil Rights Survey results of federal data indicating that private religious schools are more racially segregated than public schools, the effect of vouchers on students is troubling.
Steven R. Shapiro, Legal Director of the ACLU said, "Today's decision is bad for education and bad for religious freedom. Today's decision is not the last word, however. Fortunately, the American public appears much less willing than the Court to use taxpayer dollars to fund religious indoctrination."
