Written by Don Byrd
In a 4-3 ruling, the North Carolina Supreme Court upheld the state’s “Opportunity Scholarships” program against challenges that the voucher system violates the state’s constitution. The program allows a limited number of students in low-income families to attend private school with state funds.
Plaintiffs, a group of taxpayers, argued – and the trial court agreed – that among other constitutional flaws, North Carolina’s voucher program sends public funds to private schools that discriminate on the basis of religion. The Supreme Court disagreed on all counts, ruling that the distribution of funds outside the public school system meets the constitutional requirement of a “public purpose,” and does not preclude the state from creating the mandated “uniform system” of public schools.
The Court did not reach the question of religious discrimination, however, because it found the plaintiffs lack the standing to raise the issue. Essentially, a plaintiff needs first to suffer discrimination as a student to be eligible to litigate that issue.
Here is an excerpt from that section of the opinion:
Here plaintiffs are taxpayers of the state, not eligible students alleged to have suffered religious discrimination as a result of the admission or educational practices of a nonpublic school participating in the Opportunity Scholarship Program. Because eligible students are capable of raising an Article I, Section 19 discrimination claim on their own behalf should the circumstances warrant such action, plaintiffs have no standing to assert a direct discrimination claim on the students’ behalf.
The strong dissent charges that the program cannot meet the public purpose standard because it sends money to private schools without educational standards attached. Such a lack of oversight also, the dissent charges, abrogates the legislature’s constitutional responsibility to “guard and maintain the right to an education.”
The dissent concludes, “[T]his program . . . provides no framework at all for evaluating any of the participating schools’ contribution to public purposes; such a huge omission is a constitutional black hole into which the entire program should disappear.”
Read the opinion here.
The Baptist Joint Committee has long opposed school vouchers for the threat they pose to religious liberty.
Read all blog posts related to school vouchers.
