Aug 7, 2002 5 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – Energized by this summer’s Supreme Court decision, legislators in as many as 20 states will introduce bills that would allow families to use taxpayer funds for private or religious schools, voucher advocates say. They’re also using the courts to try to expand long-established programs in Maine and Vermont.

But both sides in the bitter voucher debate are in surprising agreement over what will happen next in schools: not much.

“I think it’s unlikely that there’s going to be some revolutionary, overnight change, but I see definite momentum in the direction of greater choice,” said Clark Neily, who litigates voucher or “school choice” programs for the Washington-based Institute for Justice.

A June 27 Supreme Court ruling declared Cleveland’s voucher program constitutional, saying taxpayer funds could go to religious schools as long as families have other options available. But the long-awaited decision did nothing to close the huge political gap separating the two camps.

It also didn’t settle the question of whether other state laws allow such programs. On Monday, a Florida court struck down the state’s rapidly growing voucher program, saying Florida’s constitution forbids the use of tax money to fund religious schools. Gov. Jeb Bush, who strongly backed the 1999 law, said the state will appeal and try to prevent the ruling from taking effect this school year.

Elsewhere, lawmakers in California, Texas, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Kansas and Missouri are considering new voucher programs.

In Kansas, where the legislature is dominated by Republicans, state Sen. Kay O’Connor said she’ll introduce a voucher bill this January, as she has for each of the past nine years. So far, it has only seen one vote, a 98-23 House defeat in 1995.

O’Connor, a Republican who represents a conservative northeast Kansas district, said she’s hopeful the Supreme Court victory will buoy the bill.

“This is the first year that there seems to be a real surge of interest in school choice, so I hope to be able to take advantage of it,” she said.

But even O’Connor won’t predict the bill’s fate, saying it could take up to two years to build support among moderates. Like many voucher advocates, she’s in a “watch-and-wait mode” until the November elections.

In Maine, Rep. Kevin Glynn, a Republican who represents South Portland, said he’ll introduce a voucher bill in January, but also anxiously awaits the results of the Nov. 5 election – Maine’s legislature is split almost evenly between Republicans and Democrats, with a term-limited governor whose term expires this year.

“The election returns are going to decide whether or not vouchers have legs in Maine,” he said.

Few observers believe the new legislative efforts will produce results in more than one or two states, if any.

“They get dropped in,” said Michael Pons, a policy analyst for the National Education Association, which has lobbied vigorously against vouchers. “They don’t usually get to the floor.”

Pons said voucher proponents have yet to make their case to moderate, middle-class voters – or to moderate lawmakers who control most state legislatures.

Neily responded that white suburbanites, for one, naturally don’t like vouchers.

“They’re not huge into school choice because they’ve already exercised it,” he said. “They moved out to the good schools.”

An Associated Press poll conducted last month by ICR

nternational Communications Research of Media, Pa., found that 51 percent of voters support vouchers for low-income families. That support drops to 31 percent when they’re told vouchers would mean less money for public schools.

Voucher advocates say the allowances can actually end up saving money, since states can spend less per-pupil to send the average student to a private school.

In the meantime, they’re focusing on inner-city minority families, especially blacks who are fed up with unsafe, underperforming public schools.

While vouchers supply the most brash education debate, they actually involve a minuscule number of students. About 48 million children attend public schools, compared to 5 million in private schools. Of those, about 31,000 attended private schools on government vouchers last spring.

Neily’s group hopes to use court cases to expand existing, limited voucher programs in Maine and Vermont to religious schools. Those states already allow families to spend state funds at private schools when there is no public high school nearby. Neither program funds religious schools, and previous court cases have kept it that way.

Neily is also pursuing litigation in Washington, a state with especially tough laws on government funding of religion.

Within hours of last June’s Supreme Court decision, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, introduced a bill in Congress that would give vouchers of up to $5,000 to public school students in Washington, D.C. It’s expected to meet strong resistance in the Senate, currently controlled by Democrats. A similar bill passed the Republican-controlled Congress in 1997; President Clinton vetoed it.

Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform, a Washington group that supports vouchers, said, “There’s going to be a lot of activity and a lot of interest, but real, viable efforts that have a likelihood of winning depend upon a lot of factors, and those factors sometimes take time, like any political effort.”