Vouchers and charter schools - News for Educational Workers - Brief Article

The Supreme Court finished its 2001 term with the most important ruling in many years on religion in the schools, upholding the constitutionality of taxpayer-financed vouchers for parochial school tuition. The ACLU says for the first time in history the Court has approved the transfer of millions of dollars in taxpayer money for religious education. In addition, the Court struck another blow against public education by ruling that public school students who participate in extracurricular activities can be subject to random drug testing. Since extracurricular activities help prevent drug use among students, the Court's decision has set up barriers to these positive activities. (ACLU Online, July 3, 2002)

For responses to the Supreme Court decision on vouchers, read "Vouchers: a Shift, but Just How Big?" and "Win the Debate, Not Just the Case" (The New York Times, June 30, 2002 and July 14. 2002). Congressman Jesse L. Jackson Jr. has called this 5-4 ruling declaring school vouchers constitutional "the worst decision in the last 50 years involving church/state issues. It's a sad day for America." Jackson has proposed an amendment (H.J. Res. 31) that guarantees every student a public education of equal high quality. (Statement made by Jackson on June 27, 2002)

The first independent study of charter school performance across the nation found that charter school students are scoring significantly below public school pupils in basic reading and math skills. Fifty-nine percent of students at traditional public schools scored better than charter school students during the period studied. (Associated Press, September 3, 2002)