Once again, prohibitions on funding religion don’t stand in the way of school choice.
In the latest case, a Montana court ruled religious schools could participate in a tax credit scholarship program.
A group of moms backed by the Institute for Justice had challenged regulations that kept religious schools out of the program.
The Associated Press reported the ruling late last month:
[District Judge Heidi Ulbricht] found that the program is funded through tax credits, not appropriations, and the constitution does not address the use of tax credits. “Non-refundable tax credits simply do not involve the expenditure of money that the state has in its treasury,” Ulbright wrote.
The legal reasoning that prevailed here doesn’t just apply to tax credit scholarships. Courts in other states have recently held Blaine Amendments shouldn’t stop vouchers in Oklahoma or education savings accounts in Nevada, either. In those cases, prohibitions on funding religious institutions didn’t stop private school choice programs funded directly through the state treasury.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard a case that could undermine Blaine Amendments across the country. That, some critics claim, might “open the door” to private school vouchers.
That might be true in a few limited cases. But in reality, the door is pretty wide open already, even in states with Blaine Amendments on the books.
