The US Supreme Court has declared that Americans have educational freedom, and now the liberal Democrats are seeing the harsh truth of their crumbling worldview.
“If our neighbors have the freedom to choose a private school and receive tuition from our town, why are we denied this same benefit just because we desire a religious education for our daughter?” This question, posed by Alan and Judy Gillis of Maine, lies at the core of the recent Supreme Court decision Carson v. Makin.
According to Cato Institute, a majority of the Court sided with the Gillis family and others around Maine. The Supreme Court concluded in a 6–3 majority that “Maine’s ‘nonsectarian’ requirement for its otherwise generally available tuition assistance payments violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.”
The recent Supreme Court ruling in a Maine school choice case has paved the way for other challenges challenging education systems around the nation. As the midterm elections approach, “school choice” has emerged as a major topic of conversation and a top priority for many voters.
In Carson v. Makin, the Supreme Court ruled that communities that pay for pupils to attend secular private schools must likewise fund their attendance at religious schools. It was viewed as a step toward nationalizing educational choice. And in Maine, it paved the way for Catholic schools to get tuition funding from the government for the first time in almost four decades, according to Yahoo News.
“Approximately 5,000 Maine children live in districts that neither have a public school nor a contract with a school in a nearby district,” Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey wrote in response to the Carson v. Makin decision. “To ensure that these children have access to a free public education, they are permitted to attend at public expense a public or private school of their choice.”
“The court’s 45-page ruling and the state Attorney General’s Office statement responding to it indicated the impact in Maine would be limited because school choice exists only in a small number of rural Maine towns that don’t have a high school or a contract with a school administrative unit that has a high school,” Yahoo reported.
“But Frey’s statement didn’t encompass the full scope of school choice in Maine or describe the full impact of the ruling. Some towns around the state that are part of school administrative units with high schools also offer school choice because of a special exception in state law that allows them to use taxpayer money to send students to private schools even when there is a public option available,” the outlet added.
“This paved the way for the West Virginia Supreme Court to reverse a lower court decision that blocked a public scholarship fund for use at private schools,” Martin Walsh reported for Conservative Brief, adding:
More on this story via The Republic Brief:
“The state’s highest court held that the Kanawha County Circuit Court was wrong to rule that the school voucher law was unconstitutional.”
The Washington Examiner reported and added more details:
The court held that the program is indeed constitutional, thus allowing the program to provide money to students leaving the public school system for either charter, private, religious, or home-schooling. Justices did not immediately provide their reasoning but said “a detailed opinion” will follow the decision, according to court records. CONTINUE READING…