Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life
August 2002
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life recently published this 37-pager on vouchers after the Zelman (Cleveland) decision. It's in two parts. The first part is a "joint statement by leading law professors" summarizing the Supreme Court's decision and explaining the next rounds of Constitutional debate on vouchers (primarily arising from state constitutional provisions). It's a balanced, nonpartisan effort-the authors include lawyers from both sides of the issue-and helpful in understanding the present state of constitutional play. The authors stress that the Supreme Court applied three criteria to the Cleveland program in determining whether it provided "true private choice" (as opposed to some sort of state aid to religious institutions): "The program was neutral toward religion; any monies flowing to religious schools flowed through the decisions of individuals rather than as direct payments from the state; and the program offered parents genuine secular options for their children's schooling." Perhaps the most interesting section of this first paper is its brief discussion of upcoming clashes between state constitutional restrictions ("Blaine amendments") and federal constitutional rights: "On the one hand is the commitment to treating religious persons, activities and organizations no worse than others that are similarly situated in terms of their access to government funds. On the other hand is a commitment to allowing the government some discretion in how it spends its resources to provide educational opportunities for children, and a commitment to states' rights-in this case, discretion for a state to separate church and state more strictly than the federal Constitution requires." The second part, "The Next Chapter in Educational Policy," is comprised of competing policy papers by Harvard's prolific Paul Peterson and Stanford's Martin Conroy. These do a good job of recapitulating pro-con arguments about the desirability of vouchers from the standpoint of education policy. Peterson urges citywide voucher pilot programs, arguing that a proper test of the idea is still needed; Carnoy contends that vouchers haven't yet proven their effectiveness. Overall, a worthy 37 pages. You can find a PDF version on the web at http://pewforum.org/issues/files/VoucherPackage.pdf.