High court upholds Ohio voucher program - Nation - school vouchers - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

National Catholic Reporter, July 5, 2002 by Gill Donovan

The Supreme Court upheld the Cleveland voucher program in a 5-4 ruling June 27, saying it is "entirely neutral with respect to religion."

The majority opinion, written by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, said the program is therefore "a program of true private choice" and does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

The voucher program was established in 1995 to help address problems in what was considered one of the worst public school systems in the country.

The program provides for vouchers of up to $4,000 annually for children in low-income families to attend other public or private schools or pay for tutors.

The vast majority of participants use their vouchers to pay tuition at church-affiliated schools, nearly all of them Catholic. In the term just ended, 3,567 voucher students were enrolled in 30 Catholic schools, according to Robert Tayek, spokesman for the Cleveland diocese. The program has about 4,000 participants in all.

The case came to the Supreme Court after the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2000 that the program was unconstitutional because the vouchers are primarily used at religious schools.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in a friend-of-the-court brief argued that the program should not be considered unconstitutional because most voucher recipients choose to attend church schools.

The Ohio school boards argued that the state has ignored its responsibility to provide a good education and is merely shifting the burden to religious schools.