Two Voucher Programs Struck Down in Arizona

The Arizona Supreme Court yesterday struck down two specialized voucher programs, ruling that they violate the state constitution's prohibition on providing state aid to private religious and secular schools.

As a result, the estimated 450 students in the two programs—one for students with disabilities and another for those living in foster care—will lose their state-funded scholarships at the end of the current academic year.

Though supporters of the two voucher plans, enacted in 2006, argued that students and their parents were the true beneficiaries of the programs, the five-member Arizona Supreme Court in a unanimous ruling in Cain v. Horne said the programs...