Voucher Plan Struck Down In Fla. Court

By Jessica L. Sandham

Advocates on both sides of the ideological divide over vouchers are bracing for yet another protracted legal fight, following a court ruling last week invalidating a taxpayer-financed program in Florida that pays private school tuition for students from low-performing public schools.

In a March 14 ruling, a state judge said that the nation’s only statewide voucher program violates a provision in the Florida Constitution that requires the state to provide students with a "uniform ... and high-quality system of free public schools."

Judge L. Ralph Smith, a circuit court judge in Leon County, did not address whether religious schools’ participation in the program goes against federal and state constitutional bans on a government establishment of religion—a central question in the broader...