Douglas County school district officials announce their intent to defend a private school choice program at a press conference earlier this year. (Image via screencap).
A Colorado school district is trying to take the legal fight for its voucher program to the U.S. Supreme Court, in a case that could have implications for school choice programs all over the country.
Last week, the Douglas County school district formally appealed a ruling against its school voucher program. Officials hope the federal court will hear their case, and think a win could spare similar programs around the country from future challenges under so-called Blaine Amendments that ban state aid to religious institutions.
In their petition to the court, filed last Wednesday, lawyers for the school district ask:
“Can Colorado’s Blaine Amendment, which the unrebutted record plainly demonstrates was born of religious bigotry, be used to force state and local governments to discriminate against religious institutions without violating the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?”
Earlier this summer, a plurality of Colorado’s Supreme Court ruled the voucher program aided religious schools, in violation of the state’s constitution. (more…)
Colorado Supreme Court
A one-of-a-kind publicly funded school voucher program suffered a legal blow this morning, as a plurality on a divided Colorado Supreme Court ruled it violated a state ban on aid for religious institutions.
But the case may not be over, and could have implications beyond a single school district south of Denver. Supporters of the Douglas County voucher program say they are weighing an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Such a move could bring new legal scrutiny to Colorado's so-called "Blaine Amendment."
Similar constitutional provisions bar taxpayer money from supporting churches or other "sectarian" institutions, including religious schools, in more than 30 other states. They have often been at the center of legal battles over private school choice.
“Ultimately, we believe this will pave the way for all U.S. students to be free of the yolk of the Blaine Amendment and exercise their free choice in educational opportunities,” Keven Larsen, the president of the Douglas County School Board, said during a news conference responding to the ruling.
The county's program, unique because it is administered by a local school district, will remain closed to parents for now.
Groups — including the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans for Separation of Church and State, and a local organization known as Taxpayers for Public Education —had also challenged the program on other grounds, which courts rejected.
