This Supreme Court ruling is directly applicable to Vermont. Vermont’s tuition assistance program is very similar to Maine’s. Vermont will have to consider how to reconcile the Carson v. Makin opinion with the Compelled Support Clause in the Vermont Constitution.
In Carson v. Makin, the court ruled 6-3 against the program which excluded students attending religious K-12 schools from taxpayer-provided tuition assistance. “Indeed, were we to accept Maine’s argument, our decision in Espinoza would be rendered essentially meaningless,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.
Unless and until universal school choice is legislated, the current disagreements voiced throughout the state will be the standard fair — guaranteed.
The legislative session was generally helpful to independent school interests. A bill to provide free school meals to publicly-funded students in the coming school year has passed, along with funding in support of a program adopted last year to test all Vermont schools for PCB contamination.
New Hampshire lawmakers have agreed to conduct regular audits of the state’s new educational freedom voucher program that is diverting taxpayer dollars for students to attend private schools and homeschooling.
The bill limits out-of-state tuitioning only to independent schools in Vermont’s neighboring states and in Quebec. This has been a long time goal of the teachers union, which wants no public tuition money to leave the state, no matter what.
A bill that puts “guardrails” around tuitioning to religious independent schools and expands dual enrollment passed the Senate after a long gestation in the Senate Education Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Courts have ruled recently that religious schools must be included in voucher programs that are made available to other non-public schools. This has raised concern among many educators and politicians that using taxpayer dollars may involve religious indoctrination.
The Burlington Catholic Diocese and two families with children attending Mount St. Joseph Academy in Rutland have filed a federal lawsuit against AOE Secretary French, and the Superintendent and School Directors of the Barstow School District seeking access to public tuition funds.
This year and the ensuing biennium are likely to be landmark years for the future of parental choice in education in Vermont. Tuition grants to parents to choose what’s best for their children will force complacent public schools to respond to competition.
Over 70% of Americans support funding students’ education rather than public education systems, according to a new poll conducted by RealClear Opinion Research.
Lawmakers in the Senate Committee on Education on Friday passed a bill 6-0 that would restrict public funds going to some independent and religious schools.