OPINION: Idaho's Constitution does not permit private school subsidies
Despite the fact that Article IX, section 5 of Idaho’s Constitution strictly prohibits using public funds for religious education, Idaho’s spendthrift legislators are at it again. They want to shower taxpayer money upon parents who are sending their kids to private schools, which would open the floodgates to subsidizing religious education.
Here is the grift. The U.S. Supreme Court has twice ruled that if, and only if, states enact a program to subside private education, they must also make program money available for religious schooling. In the latest case, Carson v. Makin, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote: “A State need not subsidize private education. But once a State decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious.” The proponents of using public money to finance private and religious schooling totally ignore the words of the Chief Justice. Roberts’ words are a warning regarding the religious consequences of using public money to subsidize private education. So-called “school choice” legislation is a workaround to evade and subvert Article IX, section 5.
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