by David Safier
The Arizona Supreme Court will soon decide on an issue with huge potential educational consequences: are private school vouchers constitutional or unconstitutional?
As things stand now, a Court of Appeals decision says vouchers are unconstitutional. The State Supreme Court has agreed to review the decision.
It all comes down to the meaning of two provisions in the AZ Constitution:
One prohibits the use of public money for "any religious worship, exercise, or instruction, or to the support of any religious establishment." The other bars the appropriation of public money "in aid of any church, or private or sectarian school."
If the provisions mean the state can't use tax dollars to send children to private schools, vouchers are out. If they mean, as voucher proponents claim, that tax dollars can go to students who spend them at private schools but not directly to the schools, vouchers are in.
We now have a limited voucher program for 500 students. If the courts decide that program is constitutional, the push for more vouchers from the right will escalate.
In LD-26, two-and-a-half of the three Republican candidates support vouchers (The half if Vic Williams, who was before vouchers before he was against vouchers before he was . . . You get the idea). All of the Dems are against vouchers. I don't know the views of specific Republicans running elsewhere, but lots of them are voucher supporters. Most Dems say No.
Have I mentioned before how important this election is? Let us count the ways.
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