The U.S. Supreme Court agreed June 14 to rule on whether parochial schools in low-income areas can receive a share of federal funds for library books, computers, and instructional equipment. To be heard this fall, the case of Mitchell v. Helms will most likely be decided next year, and the outcome is expected to have widespread ramifications in the national debate over the use of public money to assist students attending religious schools.
Central to the case is the Clinton administration’s proposal to connect all classrooms—in both public and private schools—to the Internet. The administration opposes the use of public vouchers to pay for religious education but has taken the other side in the case, supporting the New Orleans parochial-school parents who have appealed a lower court’s interpretation of federal education law that would bar such assistance to religious schools.
The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that federal funds could not be spent on educational materials other than textbooks at religious schools, while the Ninth Circuit Court on the West Coast ruled the opposite.
Posted June 21, 1999.