The big win is for Jewish students with disabilities in California, their parents or guardians who wish to use taxpayer funds to send their children to private schools – private Jewish schools – and a few schools that would like to accept those tax dollars. They are closer to winning. I think.
I am not so sure if they won or what they won or if their win will be a win. These things are never that simple.
From what I understand, in California, state funds may go to private schools if they are certified by the state and the school board determines that the schools are best suited to meet the special education needs of students with disabilities.
These funds were not allocated to the schools in this lawsuit as none were certified by the state. In addition, California does not allocate funds to “sectarian schools”. This is supposedly how they stay neutral.
There was a split decision or a couple split decisions, maybe a few split decisions in the courts. The schools that filed the complaints were not certified as special education schools so the higher court kicked it down to the lower court. The lower court agreed BUT also decided the state was not meeting its obligation to maintain religious neutrality. The lower court kicked it back up to the higher court.
The terms higher court and lower court and kicking cases and complaints up and down is a good demonstration of my legal knowledge. Please click here for more information. I am not familiar with California education policies, except for EOP policies for students with disabilities. Which, on paper, are better than Arizona’s. I am very familiar with Arizona’s laws on taxpayer funded sectarian education.
Arizona has a universal school voucher program. Meaning any student is eligible for a voucher to attend any school that their parent/guardian chooses. It is the most progressive program in Arizona’s public education system.
The irony is that the voucher program is not supported by progressives nor does the program support public education.
The school voucher program is an experiment in free market education that was at one time, seconds away from failure. The idea was that the money follow the student and parent could choose where to spend the money. Public schools would improve to remain competitive in the market.
If only it were that simple. It wasn’t. As noted, initially getting buy-in for the voucher system was close to impossible. There were legal hurdles, federal barriers, public funds going to private schools and last but not least, students’ education rights.
How did Frankenstein return from the dead? To be continued…..