ACLU News 01-16-97:Wisconsin School Voucher Plan Struck Down >

[Stanley M. Morris]

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>MADISON, WI -- Advocates of school vouchers were dealt a legal setback
>Wednesday when a Wisconsin state judge struck down a plan to give parents
>public money to pay tuition for private, religious schools.
>
>In the first court decision on the legal merits of the Wisconsin program,
>Judge Paul Higginbotham ruled that the state cannot expand its school voucher
>program experiment to include religious schools because of state
>constitutional restrictions on using public funds for religious purposes, the
>Washington Post reports.
>
>The ACLU, which spearheaded the challenge, said the decision was an important
>signal that their arguments against school vouchers are legally compelling.
>
>"It's a strong decision," Peter Koneazny, the legal director of the ACLU of
>Wisconsin, told the Post.  "He is saying that the language about prohibiting
>[vouchers] in the state constitution is specific, and pretty hard to get
>around."
>
>The Wisconsin plan, which is limited to poor families who live in Wisconsin,
>is one of several school voucher experiments in the nation.  Cleveland began
>a similar program last fall, which is being challenged before an appeals
>court.
>
>Judge Higginbotham's decision will likely return to the Wisconsin Supreme
>Court, which deadlocked on the issue 18 months ago and sent the case back to
>a lower state court.
>
>According to the Post, the issue of school vouchers has emerged as one of the
>nation's most contentious education issues -- hailed by some as a bold new
>way to give poor families more choices, denounced by others as a step that
>will ruin public schools.
>
>Legal debate on using publicly funded tuition vouchers for religious schools
>centers largely on constitutional questions about the separation of church
>and state.
>
>In his decision, Higginbotham wrote that allowing such vouchers is illegal
>because it "compels Wisconsin citizens of varying religious faiths to support
>schools with their tax dollars that proselytize students and attempt to
>inculcate them with beliefs contrary to their own."
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Stan Morris, Atty
136 W.First St.
P.O.Box 879
Cortez, Colorado 81321
970-565-3771
smmorris at rmii.com


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