Constitutionality of School Vouchers

Church and state absolutists believe that vouchers will violate the First Amendment of the
Constitution. They argue that voucher systems give parents an incentive to send their kids to
parochial school and thus represent an unconstitutional endorsement of religious education.
As mentioned in the case study, the U.S. Supreme Court will address the Cleveland
Scholarship Program's constitutionality. Many are anticipating what precedent will be set in
this ruling because it inherently deals with defining the boundaries between church and state.
Can taxpayer funds be allocated by the government to send children to a religiously-affiliated
school?

Consider the case of the Cleveland Scholarship Program. This program gives parents $2250
per year. Meanwhile, the cost of tuition at a religiously-affiliated private school is, on average,
about $1200. The cost of tuition at a non-religious private school is, on average, about $5000.
This price breakdown shows the implicit incentive in the Cleveland program--parents who
cannot afford to pay more money out of their pocket will enroll their children in religiouslyaffiliated private schools. The founders of Cleveland's program argue that city parents are in
no way encouraged to send their kids to religious schools. Parents can choose public magnet
or charter schools, which are free and get far more funding per student than voucher schools.

The importance of the Supreme Court decision that will be made should not be
underestimated. "This is probably the most important church-state case in the last halfcentury," said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church
and State. "It will be a historic showdown over government funding of religion. The court must
not allowtax dollars to be diverted from public schools to religious schools, and thus force all
taxpayers to finance religion." The decision will have immediate implications for voucher
systems in Wisconsin and Florida as well as in Ohio. It will also have implications in the
deliberations of state legislatures who are considering the implementation of a voucher
system.