How Vermont's school voucher program could be affected by SCOTUS ruling

Maine's school voucher program, which is similar to Vermont's, will need to include religious schools, according to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

The decision that came down June 21 was similar to a June 2020 ruling in a case involving Montana religious school families.

In both cases, the nation's highest court determined tuition programs that allow a student's public education dollars to be applied to private schools cannot exclude religious schools. To do so would be discriminatory, Chief Justice John Roberts concluded in both rulings.

Vermont's town tuitioning program, which is the oldest in the nation, is set up similarly to Maine's. In Vermont, students can attend a school other than their public hometown school and have their public education dollars follow them for a variety of reasons.

• High school students can attend any public high school with openings in the state and are chosen by a lottery system.
• A town without a public school can pay tuition to another town's school but has the authority to dictate which grade levels apply and sometimes which schools, including non-religious independent schools, a child can attend.
• Some school districts allow school choice within the district.
• A family can petition the school board or enter into a legal "due process" when there is a public option available but it is unable to meet the child's needs. 

Vermont's program would be beholden to the Supreme Court's decision, but opponents like Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor warn this precedent begins to dissolve the separation between church and state established by the framers of the Constitution.

In Vermont, former Education Secretary Rebecca Holcombe contends public taxpayer money should not be given to institutions that can discriminate who can attend based upon beliefs, sexual orientation and gender identity.

"This decision has profound implications for #vted and for Vermont’s constitutional protections," she wrote in a Twitter post. "Separation of church and state protects our ability to work together on shared civic purposes, without hopelessly entangling government in people’s individual consciences."

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Vermont has 32 religious schools, according to Vermont Independent Schools Association.

Contact reporter April Barton at abarton@freepressmedia.com or 802-660-1854. Follow her on Twitter @aprildbarton.