American religious schools have gotten a bad deal for centuries, but they’ll finally get their day in court next year. The Supreme Court recently decided to hear a case challenging Montana’s anti-Catholic Blaine Amendment in its next term. The high court could unravel the antireligious bias written into the constitutions of Montana and dozens of other states—and improve the lives of millions of children trapped in underperforming public schools.I didn't get beyond the Wall Street Journal's paywall, perhaps the name is on the other side.
Update, 8/25/19: Commenters have identified the case as Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue.
If the Court overturns Blaine Amendments, will states be required to fund religious schools? I'm sure they could require such schools to participate in state-administered standardized testing, for example, as a condition of getting such funds, so what would be the ultimate impact of such a ruling? This will be an interesting one to watch--and it'll probably be more interesting in the long-term than just the outcome of this particular case.
Espinoza v Montana Dept or Revenue?
ReplyDeleteLooks like Espinoza v. Montana Dept. of Revenue. "In Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, the court will decide whether the Blaine Amendment can be used to ban tuition-tax-credit programs from using philanthropic dollars to help students attend religious schools."
ReplyDeleteThe original Montana Supreme Court decision is here: https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12674439378168326153&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr
and the SCOTUS case file is here: https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/espinoza-v-montana-department-of-revenue/
Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, according to the WSJ article.
ReplyDeleteHere's a good description of the case. https://thefederalist.com/2019/07/08/supreme-court-consider-whether-public-schools-can-keep-monopoly-teaching-kids-religion/
ReplyDeleteYou ask a good question. I know of schools in Ohio that accept kids on vouchers (EdChoice Scholarship) that are required to give the state test. I think the Educational Savings Accounts might be a better route to minimize state interference.