Wisconsin High Court Ruling on School Vouchers Leaves Students with No
Choice for Religious Liberty
June 10, 1998
PRESS RELEASE: CONTACT:
MILWAUKEE--A State Supreme court decision allowing public
school funds to be diverted to religious institutions is bad news for
Milwaukee's public school children and for religious freedom, the American
Civil Liberties Union said today.
The Court on a 4-2 vote today reversed an August Court of
Appeals decision that had declared the scheme unconstitutional. Justice
Donald Steinmetz was the author of the decision; Justices Bablitch and
Chief Justice Abrahamson dissented.
"This is the first ruling by any appeals court in the country
that permits taxpayer money to go to pervasively sectarian schools for
general K-12 education," said Peter Koneazny, Legal Director of the ACLU
of Wisconsin, which is co-counsel on behalf of plaintiffs who originally
challenged the program in August, 1995.
The ACLU said that it is prepared to appeal the decision
to the United States Supreme Court.
"We believe the Wisconsin court's decision is wrong. It
flies in the face of the clear meaning of the clear meaning of our state
and federal constitutions," said Christopher Ahmuty, Executive Director
of the ACLU of Wisconsin.
If the subsidy to religious schools in Milwaukee goes ahead,
Ahmuty said, Wisconsin taxpayers will be coerced into supporting religions,
including sects and cults, with which they may not agree. In the litigation
many of the religious schools admitted that their mission includes recruiting
new adherents to their religions.
The religious school "choice" scheme, when expanded to include
up to 15,000 children and to include pervasively sectarian schools, will
undermine on-going efforts to improve the Milwaukee Public Schools for
all children, Ahmuty added.
"Under the theory of this case, Wisconsin is now free to
fund parochial school education on the same basis that it funds public
school education," said Steven R. Shapiro, Legal Director of the national
ACLU, "That decision can only be upheld if 50 years of Supreme Court law
and the Establishment Clause is reversed."
In a recent report commissioned by the state of Ohio, researchers
contend that the promise of a voucher program in Cleveland had not been
fulfilled, Shapiro noted. The researchers found "no significant difference"
in achievement in either reading, math or science between students using
vouchers and comparable sample from Cleveland's public schools.
Shapiro also noted that in a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision,
PEARL v. Nyquist, the court struck down a very similar funding scheme
in New York State.
The ACLU is involved in a challenge to the Ohio program, which is due
to be argued before the Ohio State Supreme Court. The ACLU also helped
to defeat a school voucher program Puerto Rico and is involved in a recent
challenge to a school voucher program in Vermont. The Vermont case is
now awaiting a decision in the state's supreme court.
The ACLU of Wisconsin represented the first group of plaintiffs
in this case. Attorney Jeff Kassel from the Madison law firm of LaFollette
& Sinykin was lead counsel. Co-counsel included Attorney Melanie Cohen
of the same firm, and ACLU/WIF Legal Director Peter Koneazny. Also part
of the litigation team were Steven R. Shapiro, Legal Director of the national
ACLU, and Steven Green, Legal Director for Americans United for Separation
of Church and State.
The case is Jackson et al. v. Benson et al., No. 97-0270.
The text of the decision is available
online.
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