Judge to Rule on Vouchers Next Week

A Marion County judge is set to rule next week on whether Indiana's new school voucher program passes constitutional muster.
At issue in the request for a temporary injunction before Judge Michael Keele is whether vouchers undermine the Indiana Constitution's mandate the state provide a tuition-free system of common schools open to all and violate the constitutional ban on state support of religious institutions.
Attorney John West, representing a group of Hoosiers challenging the voucher law, said during oral arguments Thursday there's no question the voucher program is unconstitutional on both counts.
"When the constitution tells you that you're to provide for the education of Indiana children through a general uniform system of common schools, it's implicit in that that it can't be done in another way, such as sending them all to private schools with vouchers," West said.
West also emphasized the Indiana Constitution says no person shall be compelled to support any place of worship or ministry and "no money shall be drawn from the treasury for the benefit or any religious or theological institution."
Defending the law, Indiana Solicitor General Thomas Fisher argued the constitution only prohibits a direct tax to support a church and said the General Assembly is free to spend general tax dollars however it wishes. He also questioned whether church-run schools are religious institutions.
As for a uniform system of common schools, Fisher said so long as the state continues to support public schools there's nothing stopping lawmakers from assisting students who want to attend private schools.
"This sort-of enabling of parents and children to seek private school education is part of the tradition of what we've done in this state for a very long time," Fisher said, noting that more than 30,000 Indiana students enrolled outside their home district or in a charter school last year.
Under the Choice Scholarship Program enacted earlier this year, families meeting certain income requirements can receive a voucher from the state worth, in most cases, up to $4,500, paid directly to state-approved private schools for student tuition.


Excerpts from Indiana Constitution

The interpretation of these three sections of the Indiana Constitution were at the center of oral arguments Thursday concerning the constitutionality of the new school voucher law.
Article 1, Section 4: No preference shall be given, by law, to any creed, religious society, or mode of worship; and no person shall be compelled to attend, erect, or support, any place of worship, or to maintain any ministry, against his consent.
Article 1, Section 6: No money shall be drawn from the treasury, for the benefit of any religious or theological institution.
Article 8, Section 1: Knowledge and learning, generally diffused throughout a community, being essential to the preservation of a free government; it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to encourage, by all suitable means, moral, intellectual, scientific, and agricultural improvement; and to provide, by law, for a general and uniform system of Common Schools, wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all.