Supreme Court Considers
Aid to Parochial Schools
The Supreme Court heard arguments December 1 on whether public funds can be used for computers, software, and library equipment at religious schools.
In the case, a group of Louisiana taxpayers challenged the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which gives public school districts money for services and instructional equipment but requires the equipment to be shared in a “secular, neutral, and nonideological” way with private schools, including religious ones. Although the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled against the policy, newer rulings in other cases have permitted more government involvement with religious programs.
Prior Supreme Court rulings have created a tangled state: Paying for textbooks and reimbursing busing costs for religious schools is permitted, but not the purchase of library books or busing students on field trips.
In addition to its implications for the debate over school vouchers, the court’s decision is seen as possibly determining the future of federal efforts to connect every classroom to the Internet. Experts are predicting a close vote in the case; a ruling is expected next spring.
Posted December 6, 1999.
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