Are School Vouchers Constitutional?
Con The Inclusion of Religious Schools in Public Voucher Systems Is Unconstitutional by Caren Dubnoff Publicly funded school voucher systems have been instituted in a number of states and are generally defended on policy grounds. Proponents claim that public schools have failed to provide quality education and teach proper values. Their failure, it is claimed, is particularly detrimental to low-income children. Their advocates argue that vouchers will remedy this problem by expanding educational choice. Low-income children will be able to obtain an education they otherwise could not afford, and public education will improve as local schools compete for students. However, even if these claims are true, which is by no means clear, a strong argument can be made that voucher programs must include only nonreligious schools because the use of public funds for tuition at private religious schools violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. If this challenge has merit, as I shall
