Tag Archives: Topic: School Choice

Dallas Morning News: “A sharply divided State Board of Education opened the door today to tapping the state’s education trust fund for charter school facilities, despite warnings that the action could harm the fund. Pushed by the board’s social conservative bloc, the decision could allow up to $100 million of the Permanent School Fund to be used to construct or purchase buildings that would be leased to some of the state’s 460 independent charter schools.”

Washington Times: “The Swedish Liberal Party pushed a new 1,500-page schooling law through last month one paragraph of which will make home schooling as an expression of religion or philosophy effectively impossible for Swedish families, other than in ‘exceptional circumstances’ such as health issues or distance from a public school. The law also severely restricts religious practice in Sweden’s ‘confessional’ schools. … Some families are even considering leaving the country, such as Nicklas and Jenny Lantz, who home-school their three sons, Lukas, Beppe and Frode. The whole family helps run a small theater they built in the Swedish countryside near their home; on play nights, they go together and help prepare for shows.”

LifeSiteNews: “Sweden’s parliament gave a crushing blow to parental rights two weeks ago, passing a law that makes homeschooling legal only in ‘extraordinary circumstances,’ reports the Home School Leal Defense Association (HSLDA). The law excludes religious or philosophical convictions as legitimate reasons for home education . . . the case Johansson v. Sweden is being litigated by Alliance Defense Fund and HSLDA attorneys . . . ”

HSLDA: “The new 1,500-page Swedish education law passed as expected on June 22, 2010. Introduced into parliament last year, the law creates a sweeping reform of the Scandinavian country’s decades-old education system, last changed in 1985. The new, comprehensive law devotes two pages to home education.”

The Daily Caller: “Dr. Patrick Wolf spoke to a packed audience in the Capitol Visitors Center last Monday. Previous studies by Wolf showed an improvement in academic performance, to the point that a student participating in OSP from kindergarten through high school would likely be 2 ½ years ahead in reading. The key finding in this final round of research, Wolf told us, was the graduation rates. OSP dramatically increases prospects of high-school graduation. Simply put, OSP has a profoundly positive effect not just on students, but on the city and the country as a whole.”

Paul Schratz writing a blog of the Archdiocese of Vancouver: “Unable to push the Church around to change many of its teachings, its foes are trotting out a simplistic argument that calls for ending any tax breaks for religious entities. It’s particularly rearing its head on education issues in Canada. In the case of a lesbian schoolteacher at Vancouver’s Little Flower Academy, critics argued the Church has no right to discriminate because it receives public tax dollars, even if only half the amount public schools get. … Most parents delegate the delivery of their children’s education to their chosen schools, but the state’s involvement in education ‘follows upon the natural rights and duties of parents.’ By extension, Church and families have the right to establish their own schools and educate their children independent of civil authority.”

Rick Hess writing at Education Week: “I’ve just spent the better part of three weeks lending a hand to school reform efforts in the Republic of Georgia. … Saakashvili and his libertarian-leaning allies took school choice seriously when they waded into education policy. They weren’t kidding around, drafting a law guaranteed to bring smiles to my friends at the Cato Institute. The 2005 law on general education, as enacted by parliament, declared, ‘The state shall protect freedom of educational choice of a pupil and a parent…The state shall finance education of a pupil from the central budget by a voucher [and] every parent has a right to get a voucher for financing the education of a child who reaches school age.’”

At First Things / First Thoughts, David Mills posts a report from Christopher Barnekov, director of Scandinavia House in Fort Wayne, Indiana: “Sweden’s Riksdag adopted a complex, 1500 page school law on June 22. Only vague outlines have appeared in the press, but the reports are alarming. The new law apparently makes home schooling almost impossible and removes religious motivations as an allowable basis for home schooling. Home schools were already severely limited in Sweden. … The new law also appears to restrict religious schools sharply and limit severely the extent to which they can incorporate faith in their curriculum.”

suit101.com: “Two organizations have come to the aid of the Johansson family representing them before the European Court of Human Rights. The Alliance Defense Fund and the Home School Legal Defense Association have begun to assist the Johanssons. The case has reached international levels because the Swedish courts refused to review a lower court’s decision that affirmed the abduction of Domenic.”

Institute of Education | National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance: “On average, charter middle schools that held lotteries were neither more nor less successful than traditional public schools in improving math or reading test scores, attendance, grade promotion, or student conduct within or outside of school. Being admitted to a study charter school did significantly improve both students’ and parents’ satisfaction with school.”

EducationNews.org: “As the Obama administration and Congress move to phase out Washington DC’s Opportunity Scholarship Program, a new evaluation of the popular voucher plan finds widespread benefits for student participants, including significantly greater high school graduation rates. … Eighty-two percent of voucher students graduated high school, compared with 70 percent of students who were offered a voucher but chose not to use it, IES researchers found. The overall high-school graduation rate in Washington, DC is around 50 percent.” | Full report here.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer (AP): “Billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates said Tuesday that charter schools can revolutionize education, but that the charter school movement also must hold itself accountable for low-performing schools.”

NJ.com: “The bill makes the Interdistrict Public School Choice Program, which started in 2000 and has continued as a pilot program since expiring in 2005, permanent. It passed 38-0 and is set to be taken up by the Assembly this afternoon.”

Christian Post: “‘Parents have the right and authority to make decisions regarding their children’s education without government interference,’ said ADF Legal Counsel [Roger Kiska], who is based in Europe, in a statement. ‘A government trying to create a cookie-cutter child in its own image should not be allowed to violate this basic and fundamental human right.’” | ADF News Release

LifeSiteNews: “‘Parents have the right and authority to make decisions regarding their children’s education without government interference,’ said ADF Legal Counsel [Roger Kiska], who is based in Europe. ‘A government trying to create a cookie-cutter child in its own image should not be allowed to violate this basic and fundamental human right.’” | ADF News Release

American Federation for Children: “Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal this week signed into law the nation’s 20th private school choice program, which will allow children with special needs to use state-funded scholarships to attend the private schools of their parents’ choice.”

Competitive Effects of Means-Tested School Vouchers | Google Viewer
Author: David Figlio & Cassandra M. D. Hart

“We study the effects of private school competition on public school students’ test scores in the wake of Florida’s Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship program, now known as the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program, which offered scholarships to eligible low-income students to attend private schools. Specifically, we examine whether students in schools that were exposed to a more competitive private school landscape saw greater improvements in their test scores after the introduction of the scholarship program, than did students in schools that faced less competition.”

Education Next: “What happens to public schools when disasters strike? The Obama Administration is talking about turnarounds, but no one ever commands a shut down. Yet 10 percent of all charters have disappeared. Could well-regulated charter schools be a better symbol of our democracy than the public school? Before I could answer that question, it was time to grab my bag, stumble to the door, and jump off the train.”

WorldNetDaily: “The state-sponsored ‘child-napping’ of a Swedish boy because his parents were homeschooling him is being escalated to the European Court of Human Rights, which is being asked to hear the case of Dominic Johansson. The application has been filed by the Alliance Defense Fund and the Home School Legal Defense Association. … ‘We are gravely concerned about this case because of the threat it represents to other homeschooling families,’ said Mike Donnelly, staff attorney for HSLDA and one of nearly 1,700 attorneys in the ADF alliance. … ‘Parents have the right and authority to make decisions regarding their children’s education without government interference,’ said Europe-based ADF Legal Counsel Roger Kiska.” | ADF News Release

Idaho Press-Tribune: “Sept. 1, 2009 — … Attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund, a nonprofit, conservative Christian advocacy group, file a lawsuit on behalf of NCA asking a judge to block enforcement of the Charter Commission’s decision that Nampa Classical Academy cannot use the Bible and other religious texts in classrooms. … June 14, 2010 — NCA appeals ruling on Bible: Nampa Classical Academy challenges the dismissal of a federal lawsuit against Idaho officials who barred the use of the Bible and other religious texts as classroom teaching tools. … ‘A wholesale ban on books with religious content conflicts with established U.S. Supreme Court precedent,’ said [David Cortman], senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund.”

Idaho Press-Tribune: “The Commission voted 5-0 to revoke the charter for failure to demonstrate fiscal soundness. The revocation is effective Wednesday, at which time NCA could cease to receive public funding. … NCA ran into trouble with the Charter Commission last summer when the commission said the school could not use the Bible and other religious texts in the classroom. That led to a lawsuit against the state for NCA’s right to use religious texts. The lawsuit has since been dismissed and appealed. Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund, which is donating its resources in the litigation, said they will continue with the lawsuit whether or not the school stays open.”

Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund and the Home School Legal Defense Association filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights Friday asking it to hear the case of a seven-year-old boy seized by Swedish authorities because his parents home-school.

Idaho Press-Tribune: “Attorneys for Nampa Classical Academy say a lawsuit to allow the school’s use of religious texts will continue even if a state commission votes to take the school’s charter away. … ‘It is a state-wide issue that affects every public school at every level,” Alliance Defense Fund attorney [David Cortman] said in an e-mail to the Idaho Press-Tribune.”

Associated Press: “The Idaho Public Charter School Commission voted to revoke Nampa Classical Academy’s charter, citing a lack of stability in the school’s finances, despite a school board member’s plea ‘for grace and mercy.’”

ADF attorney Jeremy Tedesco appeared on the Drew Mariani Show (Relevant Radio) to discuss the Arizona school choice litigation pending at the U.S. Supreme Court. | MP3 10:16 mins | ADF Media information page

The Washington Post | DeBonis: “On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Education issued its final evaluation of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program — aka school vouchers. … Here’s what it found: (a) ‘There is no conclusive evidence that the [voucher program] affected student achievement.’ (b) The program ‘significantly improved students’ chances of graduating from high school’ — by 12 percent. And (c), the program ‘raised parents’, but not students’, ratings of school safety and satisfaction.’”

Indianapolis Star: “A Hamilton County judge has dismissed a request by a Fishers-based home-schooling group to halt a state agency from pursuing discrimination and retaliation claims lodged by a former member. … The group had argued that the commission’s scrutiny violates its members’ constitutional rights to religious liberty and association. The commission maintains it has jurisdiction because of the group’s educational function.”

Miami Herald: “Somerset Academy has given the city a Friday deadline to issue a certificate of use for a proposed 675-student charter school at University Baptist Church or ‘Somerset will pursue all available remedies,’ the school’s attorney wrote in a letter last week to City Attorney Elizabeth Hernandez. … Hernandez says . . . the site is zoned for a religious institution and allows a school only as a secondary use. But representatives for the school say land use and zoning changes are not needed because a state law allows churches to house charter schools regardless of zoning.”

Americans United for Separation of Church and State: “As if there aren’t already enough reasons why public funds should never support religious education – here are just a few more. Reason No. 793: NBC’s Today Show recently interviewed a Florida teacher who said she was fired by a Christian school after school officials learned she became pregnant before her marriage . . . ”

Christian Web News: “‘We are talking about every school in the entire state of Idaho from kindergarten up through post-secondary school — we’re talking about colleges and universities — where every single book that can be deemed to be a religious document or text has been banned from study, whether it’s for objective study for art or history or literature or music,’ [David Cortman] states.”

ADF Attorney David J. Hacker appeared on Northwest Nights with Frank Shiers to discuss Idaho’s censorship of the Great Books in charter schools. | MP3 12:11 mins. | ADFmedia.org Nampa Classical Academy v. Goesling resource page

Asbury Park Press: “Barely any of Lakewood’s public school students will see a voucher; and still, ‘This piece of legislation will help us more than any other town,’ according to Republican state Sen. Robert Singer, who is also a Lakewood committeeman. … In Lakewood, private school students outnumber their public school counterparts four to one — a unique situation enhanced by the fact that they also comprise up to 20 percent of all low-income private school students in the state, far more than any other municipality, according to the latest U.S. Census data. Match that population with an inconspicuous addendum to the bill that reserves 25 percent of the $360 million in school vouchers for low-income students already in private schools, and Lakewood actually stands to win big.”

OneNewsNow: “ADF senior legal counsel [David Cortman] says he is stunned by the censorship. ‘We are talking about every school in the entire state of Idaho from kindergarten up through post-secondary school — we’re talking about colleges and universities — where every single book that can be deemed to be a religious document or text has been banned from study, whether it’s for objective study for art or history or literature or music,’ Cortman states.”

The Christian Institute: “A controversial Ofsted report on home education has been slammed by the new Chairman of the influential House of Commons Education Select Committee. Conservative MP Graham Stuart said comments made by Ofsted’s chief inspector Christine Gilbert defending the report were ‘deeply concerning’.”

ADF attorney David Hacker appeared on the Georgene Rice Show to discuss Idaho’s censorship of the Great Books in charter schools. | MP3 7:18 mins | ADF Media: ADF files appeal over Western Civilization book ban in Idaho public schools, universities

WorldNetDaily: “‘Censoring classical books, including religious books, does not improve a student’s education; it harms it,’ said ADF Senior Legal Counsel [David Cortman] of the filing this week. ‘A wholesale ban on books with religious content conflicts with established U.S. Supreme Court precedent stating that even “the Bible may constitutionally be used in an appropriate study of history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion, or the like.”‘”

Homeschooling in Germany and the United States
Aaron T. Martin, Arizona Journal of International & Comparative Law, Vol. 27, No. 1

“This note provides a normative analysis of the constitutional implications of parental choices in education–specifically with regard to homeschooling–in the United States and Germany. This note argues against recent scholarship calling for more State intervention in education and shows how the fundamental right of parents to direct the education of their children must be preserved to further the goals of a liberal democracy. Part One discusses the historical situation of Germany in the 1930s that led to the adoption of compulsory attendance laws. It then moves on to consider Germany’s recent attacks on homeschooling families and the legal battles that have led to civil and criminal sanctions for parents. Part Two considers the constitutional history of parental rights in education in the United States. Part Three discusses the policy debates surrounding homeschooling and implications of policy decisions that may impact both the United States and Germany. There, this note argues that any infringement on parental rights to homeschool is inconsistent with the principles of a robust liberal political democracy. The note concludes by acknowledging the current problems in educational policy as well as future threats to homeschooling in the United States and Germany.”

CitizenLink: “‘It goes to the heart of not only education, but the teaching of the history of our country and in fact western civilization indeed,’ said [David Cortman], senior legal counsel with ADF. ‘Does that mean students can no longer study the documents from our Founding Fathers? Many of these writings have religious basis to them.’”

Idaho Press-Tribune (AP): “The Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based group of Christian lawyers, contend to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that a federal judge erred when he threw out Nampa Classical Academy’s case last year. ‘A wholesale ban on books with religious content conflicts with established U.S. Supreme Court precedent,’ said [David Cortman], senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund.” | ADF News Release

Steven Menashi, Toward a “More Enlightened and Tolerant View”: Educational Choice and the Regulation of Religious Institutions. NYU Annual Survey of American Law, Vol. 66, No. 1, p. 31, 2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1592586

“Since the Supreme Court upheld the inclusion of religious schools in publicly funded school choice programs, the question of the extent to which states may regulate the schools that participate in such programs remains unsettled. The question is important because state regulation may implicate issues of religious belief and practice that have traditionally been outside state control. Indeed, many legal scholars have endorsed such regulation in order to bring religious institutions into line with majoritarian norms. This Article argues that those activists and legal scholars who advocate public regulation of religious schools through school choice programs ignore the serious constitutional obstacles to such regulation. Even the modest regulations that already apply to religious schools in the nation’s two choice programs that include such schools lack a compelling justification that outweighs the infringement of First Amendment rights. The First Amendment establishes a right of religious institutions to remain free of government oversight and prohibits the government from involving itself in ecclesiastical questions reserved to religious institutions. Even if a religious institution consents to government oversight, an ‘excessive entanglement’ will nevertheless render such oversight unconstitutional. Moreover, if a regulation, had it been imposed directly, would violate the school’s rights under the First Amendment, it would represent an unconstitutional condition when pressed indirectly. Because a school choice program that aims to promote educational pluralism resembles a limited public forum, the state may not discriminate on the basis of viewpoint by imposing regulations that exclude certain types of religious belief and practice. Ultimately, while the government need not empower parents to choose educational alternatives with vouchers, if a state does establish such a program it may not police those alternatives in ways that implicate religious expression.”

KHQ (AP): “The Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based group of Christian lawyers, filed an appeal Monday on behalf of Nampa Classical Academy in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. . . . An attorney for the academy, [David Cortman], complained that he had never seen such a broad-reaching ban on using the Bible as a resource in public schools.” | ADF News Release

Commission bans use of any texts it deems ‘religious,’ even if used solely for objective literary or historical reference

Idaho Press-Tribune: “The Idaho Public Charter School Commission will conduct a hearing in Boise today to discuss revoking Nampa Classical Academy’s charter. A hearing officer will . . . present his findings on a possible charter revocation to Charter Commission board members at their June 24 regular meeting . . . The commission told school leaders they could not use the Bible and other religious texts to teach history and literature. The school then used the resources of the Alliance Defense Fund, a national conservative advocacy group, to sue the commission and the state for the right to use religious texts. That lawsuit is still in progress.” | ADFmedia.org Nampa Classical Academy v. Goesling resource page

Dallas Morning News: “And some leaders of a civil rights group that once battled for equal education in Dallas schools are now urging black parents to send their kids elsewhere. Some say the rising attention to the needs of children learning English is overshadowing the needs of black students.”

Idaho Press-Tribune: “Nampa Classical Academy headmaster Val Bush will resign his position with the school. Terms of the resignation are not final and school officials don’t know when Bush’s last day will be.”

LA Times Editorial: “The United States has a long tradition of allowing tax breaks for charitable contributions, including donations to churches and other religious organizations. But the San Francisco-based U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has concluded that a program that offers tax credits for contributions to provide scholarships for private schools breaches the wall separating church and state. It’s a tortured decision that the Supreme Court rightly has agreed to review . . . ”

OneNewsNow: “The Supreme Court will consider ending a lawsuit backed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) that challenges Arizona’s tuition tax program . . . ‘Their entire argument is just because religious schools are included among the schools that receive this private money . . . somehow it violates the so-called “separation of church and state,” and that’s simply not the case,’ [ADF Attorney David Cortman] contends. ‘Religious schools under the law should be treated the same as other schools, which is exactly what this law does.’”

CBC: “Quebec’s education ministry is seeking a court injunction to shut down a private Jewish school in Montreal for not maintaining scholastic standards . . . The yeshiva receives no provincial funding and does not hold a permit to teach, which contravenes Quebec’s education law. The province’s education ministry has since 2006 pressured the school to comply with education regulations, after inspections revealed that it was emphasizing religious teachings to the exclusion of secular, provincially-sanctioned core curriculum such as history and geography.”

NY Daily News: “The state Assembly approved legislation early Friday to more than double the number of charter schools in the state, just in time to apply for up to $700 million in federal Race to the Top Dollars.”

Crosswalk: “Religion News Service reports that the U.S. Supreme Court will review the constitutionality of an Arizona program that provides state tax breaks for donations to private school scholarship programs . . . The Christian legal group Alliance Defense Fund will defend Arizona’s tax-tuition program.”

CitizenLink | Drive Thru: “The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to review a case involving an Arizona school choice program could have huge ramifications nationwide. And in Arizona alone, more than 27,000 school children could be impacted by the decision . . . So now the Alliance Defense Fund and other groups have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. It’s great news that the Court has chosen to do so. But there’s a lot at stake.”

Chicago K-12 Examiner: “Illinois House Rep. Joyce just filed yet another amendment to SB 2494, the voucher bill. Amendment 4 was sent today to the Rules Committee, which can mean just about anything,”

ADF attorney David Cortman appeared on the Michael Medved Show to discuss the Arizona tuition tax credit litigation at the U.S. Supreme Court. | MP3 22:54 mins | ADF Media Information

ADF attorney David Cortman appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss the Arizona tuition tax credit litigation at the U.S. Supreme Court. | MP3 5:31 mins | ADF Media Information

ADF attorney Mike Johnson appeared on the Frank Pastore Show to discuss the AZ tuition tax credit case and Idaho’s censorship of the Great Works of Western Civilization in public charter schools. | MP3 – 20:47 mins | ADF Media information in the AZ case | ADF Media information in the Idaho case

Baptist Press: “The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) appealed the opinion to the Supreme Court on behalf of ACSTO. It denied Arizona’s program violates the establishment clause, since it deals with private choices and donations. ADF asked the high court to overturn the Ninth Circuit decision because the foes of the program have suffered no injuries and have no legal standing to challenge it. ‘This program is neutral; the state never touches the private money involved…,’ ADF senior legal counsel [David Cortman] said in a written statement.” | ADF News Release

Charter School Autonomy: A Half-Broken Promise
Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Dana Brinson, Jacob L. Rosch, 4.28.2010

“This Fordham Institute study finds that the typical charter school in America today lacks the autonomy it needs to succeed, once state, authorizer, and other impositions are considered. Though the average state earns an encouraging B+ for the freedom its charter law confers upon schools, individual state grades in this sphere range from A to F. Authorizer contracts add another layer of restrictions that, on average, drop schools’ autonomy grade to B-. (Federal policy and other state and local statutes likely push it down further.) School districts are particularly restrictive authorizers. The study was conducted by Public Impact.”

NY Times: “Charter school advocates, including Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, are vigorously lobbying for a bill that would more than double the number of charters in New York State and would send at least $2 billion in taxpayer money a year into the charter system . . . review of public documents shows that many charter schools have spent money in questionable ways and have experienced significant conflicts of interest. The documents were obtained by New York United Teachers, the state teachers union, and provided to The New York Times, which corroborated the data . . . ”

ADF Attorney David French writing at Phi Beta Cons: “Eight years after the Supreme Court ruled that Cleveland, Ohio’s school-voucher program was constitutional even when parents used vouchers to directly pay tuition at private, religious schools, the constitutionality of school choice is back before the Supreme Court, this time with a twist . . . As [Jordan Lorence] explains over at the Academic Freedom File, our assertion is that the plaintiffs have not suffered any harm as a result of the Arizona program, and without suffering any harm, they cannot challenge the constitutionality of the program.”

Washington Post | On Faith | Spirited Atheist: “The [Nampa Classical Academy] ruling underscores (though this was not its intent) the threat to nonsectarian democratic education posed by taxpayer-financed charter schools that are, in many instances, a cover for pushing private religious and cultural agendas with public money . . . The Academy, represented by the Alliance Defense Fund–a well-financed legal arm of the religious right–may well appeal the decision in search of a friendlier judge. The alliance’s senior legal counsel, [David Cortman], referred contemptuously to ‘the so-called separation of church and state’ in denouncing the decision.” | ADF Media’s Nampa Classical Academy v. Goesling resource page

The Arizona Republic: “The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to review the constitutionality of an Arizona program that diverts state tax revenue into private-school scholarships . . . Supporters of the tuition tax-credit program say the tax money does not go directly to private and religious schools. Instead, donors can contribute to a variety of private-school-tuition organizations, including some secular ones, and parents decide which schools their child attends, said Jeremy Tedesco, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group that is helping defend the Arizona program.” | ADF News Release

Yuma Sun: “The nation’s high court will decide whether Arizonans can divert money they owe the state to help students attend private and parochial schools . . . Supporters of the tuition tax-credit program say the tax money does not go directly to private and religious schools. Instead, donors can contribute to a variety of private-school-tuition organizations, including some secular ones, and parents decide which schools their child attends, said [Jeremy Tedesco] . . .” | ADF News Release

School Law Blog: “The U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to weigh the constitutionality of a 13-year-old Arizona program offering tax credits for donations made to organizations that provide scholarships for children to attend private schools . . . ”

BBC: “Thousands of schools will become academies and opt out of local authority control, under plans expected in the Queen’s Speech . . . ”

ADF Attorney Jordan Lorence writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “The Supreme Court today granted review in a case the Alliance Defense Fund has been litigating on whether Arizona’s school tuition tax credit program violates the Establishment Clause. Actually, the Supreme Court consolidated two cases, Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn and Garriott v. Winn. You can find the court documents for the appeal here.”

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys will defend Arizona’s tuition tax credit program in the U.S. Supreme Court, the second time the matter has reached the high court in a lawsuit backed by the American Civil Liberties Union seeking to strike down the program.

ADF attorney David Cortman appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss Idaho’s censorship of the Great Books in public charter schools. | MP3 – 7:37 mins | ADF Media information page

OneNewsNow: “A federal judge’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the Idaho Public Charter School Commission’s ban on the use of religious texts in its curriculum may not be the last word . . . ‘There is no legitimate educational reason to censor such amount of large religious books just because they’re religious,’ contends ADF attorney [David Cortman].”

The Court decided today that it would hear an appeal to a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that declared an Arizona school choice program unconstitutional.

ADF attorney David Cortman writes at the Christian Post Advancing Religious Liberty Blog: “. . . The State of Idaho has ordered that ‘no religious documents or text’ may be used in any public school in the state, period. That not only includes the religious texts mentioned above, but also many canons of Western Civilization and great literary works, such as those written by Homer, Augustine, and Luther . . . I would hope that AU itself does not support such a broad ban on an entire category of books. Does anyone really want that for the future of our public schools? . . . Like most other times AU takes a swing at constitutional analysis, all that’s left is a whiff…of censorship.”

Telegraph: “The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats said the new administration would allow religious organisations to run a new wave of primary and secondary schools funded at taxpayers’ expense . . . But in a move seen as a concession to the Lib Dems, the coalition’s new policy blueprint says that these new schools would be expected to run ‘inclusive’ admissions policies.”

David Kirkpatrick quotiing Justice Clarence Thomas at Education News: “Whatever the textual and historical merits of incorporating the Establishment Clause, I can accept that the Fourteenth Amendment protects religious liberty rights. But I cannot accept its use to oppose neutral programs of school choice through the incorporation of the Establishment Clause. There would be a tragic irony in converting the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of individual liberty into a prohibition on the exercise of educational choice.”

CitizenLink: “[David Cortman] of the Alliance Defense Fund said options for an appeal are being discussed with Nampa Academy. ‘We would be requesting that the 9th Circuit would prohibit the state from enforcing the order that stops all public schools including colleges, from being able to use any of these religious texts,’ Cortman said.” | ADF News Release

ADF attorney David Cortman appeared on AFR Talk’s Focal Point with Bryan Fischer to discuss the Idaho textbook ruling. | MP3 14:14 mins | Related posts: ZZ: Nampa Classical Academy v. Goesling | ADF Media information page

“Think it’s just a ban on the Bible in public schools, even as a historical reference document? No. As worded, it prohibits many of the founding documents that are religious (and many, political).”