The Future of Public Education Hinges on This Supreme Court Case
Tomorrow, the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments in a crucial case called Espinoza v. Montana.
The goal of the Espinoza plaintiffs is to strike down state laws that prohibit public funding for religious schools.
This is a case that could not only erase the line between church and state but could actually compel states to fund religious schools. It would require states to fund religious schools of every kind, and no one knows who will determine what is a legitimate religious school. It would divert funding from public schools to support students enrolled in religious schools, now and in the future.
The plaintiffs are represented by the libertarian Institute for Justice. Its efforts on behalf of school choice have been funded over the years by anti-public school activists like the Walton Family Foundation (which has launched one of every four charter schools in the U.S.), the Bradley Foundation of Milwaukee (which fought in court to establish vouchers in that city), the DeVos family, and the Koch Foundation.
Twenty or thirty or forty years ago, the Supreme Court would have dismissed this case out of hand. In the past, the Court ruled that states should pay for ancillary CONTINUE READING: The Future of Public Education Hinges on This Supreme Court Case | Diane Ravitch's blog