Maine Islanders Approve Universal School Vouchers
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=18919
The Heartland Institute - Chicago,IL,USA
Written By: Frank J. Heller
Published In: School Reform News
Publication Date: May 1, 2006
Publisher: The Heartland Institute
In early March, the people of Swans Island, Maine, a town without a
secondary school, voted to pay for their children's education with local
tax funds at either public or private secondary schools, including
religious schools not funded by the local education authority. The
subsidies will be paid directly to parents and involve local funds, not
state monies, thereby avoiding church-state issues, according to the
proposal's sponsors.
The 57-44 vote on the tiny island off the Maine coast--where the economy
relies on lobstering and most children are ferried to school on the
mainland--echoed a much larger national debate over public subsidies to
religious schools. Some islanders feel it may also be the solution to a
longstanding conundrum over the application of the First Amendment to Maine
education law.
"The response was overwhelmingly for raising money for this," said town
clerk Gwen May after a lengthy public debate.
In Maine, a local school district that doesn't operate comparable
schools--a high school, for example--is allowed to "contract" with an
approved public or private school (but not religious schools). Tuition is
reimbursed according to a state-set formula. In towns without any schools,
parents enroll their children in an approved school, and the school then
informs the town clerk, who issues a voucher and reimburses the school for
expenses according to the state formula.
Reversing History
Since 1873, Maine has run such a Town Tuitioning Program--essentially,
universal school vouchers--because so many small towns don't operate their
own high schools, and in some cases even elementary schools. Most towns
allow parents to choose their children's schools, and then the town pays
the per-pupil costs to the receiving districts. According to The History of
Maine Education (1936), by Ada Chadbourne, sending payments to private
religious schools was not prohibited.
In fact, Maine's education system started out as almost exclusively
religious. It wasn't secularized until Thomas Jefferson consulted with the
first state board of education in the 1800s and advised it to set up a
taxation system to build "free" public schools. Over the past 100 years,
the state's roster of private academies dwindled down to a few dozen,
operating largely at the secondary school level, which educated students at
public expense under the tuition reimbursement policy.
The system became further restricted in 1980, when then-Attorney General
Joseph Brennan (D) ruled local school districts were forbidden to pay
tuition to religious high schools, applying the prevailing interpretation
of the U.S. Constitution's clause regarding the separation of church and
state.
The ruling devastated a number of religious schools--even forcing a highly
regarded Jesuit high school, John Bapst, to secularize in order to continue
serving the community.
Upsetting Locals
Several Swans Island residents who had attended religious schools recalled
the 1980 decision's impact on their education and voted for the local
subsidy. Jason Joyce, lobsterman and leader of the group that convinced the
town to adopt the subsidy, called it a "return to the island's roots"--an
idea several islands off the coast of Maine are echoing as they withdraw
from mainland-dominated school districts.
John Grace, a first selectman, supported the American Civil Liberties
Union's view of the separation of church and state as applied to school
finance, but said he "could see the way the town was going to vote" on the
issue and stepped aside to let the voters express their will. He said many
townspeople who are now in their fifties and sixties and were educated
under the old policy saw nothing wrong in restoring public payment of
tuition for students at religious schools.
Over the past 15 years, various parents backed by libertarian and religious
groups have taken the issue to court, using the U.S. Supreme Court's
shifting interpretation of the establishment clause to argue courts should
allow the state to revert to its prior practice of directly funding
approved religious schools.
Two key litigators have emerged to lead the challenges before the courts:
***** Komer, senior litigator for the Washington, DC-based Institute for
Justice, and Stephen Whiting, a lawyer in Portland, Maine. The Institute
for Justice currently has a school voucher case, Anderson v. Town of
Durham, before the Maine Supreme Court. The Whiting firm represented the
Eulit family in a federal case two years ago, arguing for restoration of
state funding for religious schools on different grounds than were argued
by the Institute for Justice.
Rehearing Facts
Whiting's firm, representing the Anderson family and other plaintiffs,
appealed the Anderson decision to the Maine Supreme Court, where oral
arguments were presented in February 2005. However, because of changes in
the court, a rehearing was held in February 2006.
"The fact that the Maine Supreme Court asked us to reargue the case
suggests that we made some headway since the original argument a year ago,"
Komer said, adding he is "hopeful" of a favorable ruling.
But funding religious schools under the Town Tuitioning Program is not the
main point, Whiting said. While the people of Swans Island were debating
the issue, Whiting crafted a local warrant (a town ordinance that is put on
the agenda at a town meeting for discussion and approval or disapproval),
at the request of local lobsterman Joyce.
The warrant recognized recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that public
subsidies to parents avoid constitutional problems involved in paying
schools directly. The warrant also avoided the Maine law's prohibition of
local education authorities from paying tuition to religious schools
because the Family Subsidy Policy uses only local monies and goes directly
to the parents to spend on the school of their choice.
Paying Families
"No money is going to be paid by the town to sectarian schools, so there is
no way that your policy could be found to violate Title 20-A M.R.S.A. 2951
(this is the State statute governing the State's subsidies for local
education agencies)," Whiting wrote in a March 15 letter to Joyce.
"As stated in my letter of February 22, the Anderson v. Town of Durham case
involves issues that are so completely different from what you are
proposing to do with your non-discrimination family subsidy policy that
there is no way the court's decision in Anderson could possibly have any
effect on your proposed policy, whichever way the court decides that case.
.. "In short, there is no legal reason why the town should have to
discriminate against families like yours, and your proposed policy levels
the playing field within the boundaries of the law" (emphasis in original).
Withstanding Challenges
Whiting said he was "cautiously optimistic" the plan could withstand the
potential legal challenges it might face from civil liberties groups in the
future, particularly since the provision has been shorn of previous
church/state separation objections.
A spokesman for the Maine Civil Liberties Union said the group was
withholding action until the Maine Supreme Court issues a ruling on
Anderson in a few months.
In the meantime, Joyce's son will be attending Life Christian Academy in
Ellsworth, Maine, with his tuition paid by his parents out of tax monies
sent to them under a plan approved by a majority of Swans Islanders.
"It's a tremendous help," Joyce said. "[My son] likes the school, he gets a
good education, he does well in his grades. I am very proud of the Town of
Swans Island for taking a stand."
Frank J. Heller is a member of the Maine Policy Ronin Network in Brunswick.
.... to pay tuition to religious high schools, applying the prevailing
interpretation of the US Constitution's clause regarding the separation of
church and state. ...
***************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]
HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads [Virginia] SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members, there are members from
all over the US and a couple from overseas as well]
***************************************************************
.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
****************************************************************
USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
*****************************************************************
THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
****************************************************************
.
|
