Yesterday the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) asked Colorado to reconsider its decision that prohibits families from using school vouchers (public funds) to pay for private religious schools. This move came on the heels of a major ruling Monday in which the Supreme Court sent a strong message favoring religious institutions in similar matters.
These rulings are significant for Alabama because, while our state does not have a voucher program like Colorado’s, the Alabama Accountability Act is a form of school choice in which families can use tax credits to attend private, religious schools.
Specifically, the Alabama law allows tax credits to fund scholarships that low-income families can use to leave under-performing schools for better ones, including private and religious schools. For this reason, the Supreme Court has further opened the door for the expansion of more school choice programs in Alabama, including vouchers.
In Monday’s landmark decision, the SCOTUS considered a Missouri case in which Trinity Lutheran Church applied for a public grant to improve its school’s playground. The state had been funding the use recycled tires to make school playgrounds safer for schools across Missouri, but when Trinity applied, the state said no. Missouri’s courts backed this decision, reasoning that if the state paid for a safer playground at Trinity’s school, it would be establishing a state religion.
The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed. Even liberal Justice Stephen Breyer pointed out the absurdity of Missouri’s rationale, rhetorically asking: “Does the Constitution of the United States permit a state or a city to say, ‘We give everybody in this city police protection, but not churches? We give everybody fire protection, but let churches burn down?’”
What isn’t yet clear, is how the Trinity Lutheran ruling will be applied. Those who disagreed with it were quick to limit its application, while those who support it believe the states will change their laws to comply with this week’s SCOTUS findings.
Either way, this week’s decisions sent a clear message: The U.S. Supreme Court is going to give significant leeway to the states in the use of public funds for private, religious institutions with reasonable programs like school vouchers and safer playgrounds.
This came as a big blow for the National Education Association (NEA), the country’s largest teachers’ union who fights school choice at every turn. Although they knew the Missouri case was about nothing more than a church wanting to make its school playground safer, the NEA saw it as an opportunity. They filed a brief in Trinity Lutheran that they hoped would open the door to weakening school choice nationwide. This week, that door was tightly closed, if not locked, by America’s highest court.
For Alabama, this means programs like the AAA, cannot be easily challenged in court, even though our state courts have wisely upheld the law at every turn. It also means that school choice in Alabama can almost certainly be expanded without the fear that frivolous lawsuits will gain traction if taken to the national level.
In other words, Alabama and every other state are benefiting from the current Supreme Court that realizes the U.S. Constitution never intended to evict the church from society. As Justice Breyer so aptly pointed out, to do so is as crazy as a local fire department saying it will let a church burn down because putting out the fire establishes a state religion.
