N.Y.C. Seeks To Overturn Limits On Title I at Religious Schools

By Mark Walsh

The New York City school district is spending about $16 million this academic year on mobile vans, building rentals, and computers for religious-school students who are eligible for federally financed remedial education.

The money is being spent on infrastructure rather than instruction--on top of the cost of actual Title I services for nonpublic school students--because of a 1985 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that barred New York and other districts from sending teachers into religious schools.

New York City officials argue that these alternatives are expensive and inefficient. The fiercest critics of the district's Title I program, led by an advocacy group that champions church-state separation,...