The Pew Center's Stateline reports on the handful of states poised to introduce (or reintroduce) school voucher programs this year. New Governors in Florida, Wisconsin, Indiana and Nevada are all pushing legislation that would send taxpayer money to private schools, despite provisions in the state constitutions of each prohibiting the funding of religion.
At least 40 states have language in their constitutions forbidding them from funding religion or religious schools, a provision known as the “Blaine Amendment.” While Florida’s Supreme Court overturned the most high-profile parts of Bush’s voucher program, saying it violated the Blaine Amendment, the Wisconsin Supreme Court found that Milwaukee’s voucher system did not violate the amendment.
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The new voucher plans come as the Obama administration is winding down a federally funded voucher program in Washington, D.C. The administration let funding expire for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, even as it embraced other controversial reform efforts through the Race to the Top grants.
