Court Sidesteps Voucher Issue

The Supreme Court sidestepped a divisive national debate over education Monday as it let Wisconsin continue providing financial help for families whose children attend private schools, even those affiliated with religious groups.

The justices left intact a state law providing tuition vouchers good for up to $5,000 a year per child for students who attend private schools in Milwaukee.

Because most of those schools are religious, the state's plan was challenged as a violation of the constitutionally required separation of church and state.

Monday's action, taken by an 8-1 vote and without any explanatory comment from the court, is not a decision and sets no national precedent. But it is sure to give new vigor to efforts by tuition-voucher backers in other states.

Much was, and remains, at stake. Congress is considering a national voucher program, and legislatures in about half the states have considered such programs in recent years.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the state legislature's multimillion-dollar voucher program for Milwaukee, under which poor families of as many as 15,000 students who attend religious and other private schools could receive financial aid. About three-fourths of the private schools in the city have religious affiliations.

The justices were told that more than 6,000 students are participating in the program in the 1998-99 school year.

"Efforts are under way to enact voucher programs elsewhere, and the national policy debate that is unfolding in these other forums is shrouded in ... a constitutional cloud," opponents to the state's program said in their appeal. "This case . . . offers this court a timely and appropriate opportunity to resolve the uncertainty, so that the debate over voucher programs can focus on education policy rather than constitutional law."

Proponents of vouchers were split. Lawyers for the state and some families who receive financial aid from the program urged the justices to reject the appeal, but lawyers for some other participating families said the case "provides an ideal opportunity to resolve the constitutionality of parental choice."

Their lead lawyer, Clint Bolick of the Washington-based Institute for Justice, previously had voiced the hope that the court would use the Wisconsin case to give a green light to all such programs.

The justices fanned such hopes last year when they ruled in a New York case that public school teachers can offer remedial help in church-run schools. The 5-4 decision said sending taxpayer-paid teachers into religious schools to help students with such subjects as math, science, and English does not run afoul of the First Amendment's ban on a governmental "establishment of religion."

That ruling and others have cast doubt on the continued vitality of a 1973 Supreme Court decision that struck down a school voucher program because some public money was used to

The appeal acted on Monday said the court should make clear whether that 25-year-old ruling is still good law. Only Justice Stephen G. Breyer voted to grant review and fully study the appeal.

The appeal was supported by, among others, the National School Boards Association. It told the court, "Vouchers are not an educational panacea. In fact, proponents of vouchers are asking us to abandon the public schools."

Under the Wisconsin plan, money paid for private school tuitions is taken from funds that otherwise would be spent on public schools.

By Richard Carelli