School Choice & Charters

Court Limits ‘Tuitioning’ Aid in Maine

By Mark Walsh — May 26, 1999 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

A federal appeals court has upheld the state of Maine’s refusal to reimburse parents who send their children to religious schools.

The May 27 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit is the latest in a spate of legal decisions related to private school vouchers.

In April, the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, the state’s highest court, reached the same result in a separate case.

Both cases dealt with Maine’s long-standing system known as “tuitioning,” in which towns lacking their own high schools reimburse parents for sending their children to public high schools in other communities or to secular private schools.

In the latest case, parents from the towns of Minot and West Minot sought tuition reimbursement for sending their children to St. Dominic’s Regional High School, a Roman Catholic school in nearby Lewiston.

The three-judge panel of the Boston-based appeals court unanimously rejected the argument that Maine’s exception of religious schools from the tuitioning program did not violate the Catholic school parents’ First Amendment right to freely exercise their religion.

Two of the judges went further and agreed with the Maine high court that inclusion of religious schools would violate the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against government establishment of religion.

Appeal Expected

Michael Simpson, the assistant general counsel of the National Education Association, said the ruling was significant because it was the first time a federal appeals court had weighed in during the current era of nationwide debate over vouchers.

“We think this court got it right,” said Mr. Simpson, whose union filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the state.

Last month, the Ohio Supreme Court struck down the Cleveland voucher program based on the way it was enacted by the state legislature. The court ruled, however, that providing vouchers to students in religious schools would not violate federal and state constitutional provisions barring government aid to religion. (“Ohio Court Issues Mixed Verdict on Voucher Program,” June 2, 1999.)

Vincent P. McCarthy, a lawyer with the American Center for Law and Justice, said the appeals court ruling would be appealed.

The court “ignored all of the recent statements by the [U.S.] Supreme Court” on neutral aid to religion, said Mr. McCarthy, who represented the Maine parents as the Northeast regional counsel for the Virginia Beach, Va.-based ACLJ.

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the June 09, 1999 edition of Education Week as Court Limits ‘Tuitioning’ Aid in Maine

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School Choice & Charters Tracker Which States Have Private School Choice?
Education savings accounts, voucher, and tax-credit scholarships are growing. This tracker keeps tabs on them so you don't have to.
School Choice & Charters Opinion What's the State of Charter Schools Today?
Even though there's momentum behind the charter school movement, charters face many of the same challenges as traditional public schools.
10 min read
Image shows a multi-tailed arrow hitting the bullseye of a target.
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty
School Choice & Charters As Private School Choice Grows, Critics Push for More Guardrails
Calls are growing for more scrutiny over where state funds for private school choice go and how students are faring in the classroom.
7 min read
Illustration of completed tasks, accomplishment, finished checklist, achievement or project progression concept. Person holding pencil tick all completed task checkbox.
Nuthawut Somsuk/iStock/Getty
School Choice & Charters How a District Hopes to Save an ESSER-Funded Program
As a one-time infusion of federal funding expires, districts are searching for creative ways to keep programs they funded with it running.
6 min read
Chicago charter school teacher Angela McByrd works on her laptop to teach remotely from her home in Chicago, Sept. 24, 2020.
Chicago charter school teacher Angela McByrd works on her laptop to teach remotely from her home in Chicago, Sept. 24, 2020. In Montana, a district hopes to save a virtual instruction program by converting it into a charter school.
Nam Y. Huh/AP