Copyright 2000 Newsday, Inc.
Newsday (New York, NY)
June 29, 2000, Thursday NASSAU AND SUFFOLK
EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Page A23
LENGTH: 704 words
HEADLINE:
COURT OKS PUBLIC FUNDING OF PRIVATE-SCHOOL EQUIPMENT
BYLINE: By Elaine S. Povich. WASHINGTON BUREAU.
BODY:
Washington-The Supreme Court ruled
yesterday that public funds can be used to provide computers and other equipment
to private schools, a decision supporters hailed as a harbinger of private
school tuition vouchers but critics warned "took a sledgehammer" to the
constitutional wall separating church and state.
The 6-3 decision gave
impetus to the government's drive to connect every classroom to the Internet and
buoyed proponents of using public funds to subsidize with vouchers the education
of children whose families send them to private schools.
Lower courts
are currently considering numerous cases involving the private-school voucher
issue.
The case before the Supreme Court stemmed from a 15-year-old
lawsuit by parents in Jefferson Parish, La., who were upset that their children
in public schools had to get up early to ride school buses that were later used
to transport children to private schools. The parents also were concerned that
taxpayer money was used to provide computers, overhead projectors and other
equipment to parochial schools.
Writing for the court's majority,
Justice Clarence Thomas said that providing equipment "does not have the effect
of advancing religion" and is permissible because it is content neutral.
Thomas was joined by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, and Justices
Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy. Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Stephen
Breyer concurred in a separate opinion that nonetheless expressed concern about
the broad scope of Thomas' opinion.
Justice David Souter, joined by
Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, dissented, saying that the
majority failed to "recognize the divertibility of funds to the services of
religious objectives."
The Institute for Justice, a group that advocates
school vouchers, heralded the decision. "This is the sixth consecutive U.S.
Supreme Court decision sustaining aid to students in religious schools or
activities," said Clint Bolick, director of litigation for the institute.
"School choice will make it a lucky seven."
"Praise be to God!" Sister
Joanne Callahan, schools superintendent for the Roman Catholic Diocese of
Rockville Centre, said upon hearing the news. She said federal money had never
been cut off to Long Island schools as it had been in Louisiana, but that the
court's ruling guaranteed it would continue to flow to Catholic schools in the
bicounty region for computer purchases, Internet connections, teacher training
and other services.
Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United
for Separation of Church and State, a group opposed to vouchers, said the court
"took a sledgehammer to the wall of separation between church and state today.
Thanks to this misguided decision, taxpayers will now be forced to pay for an
endless parade of computers and other expensive equipment for religious
schools."
In the city, some parochial schools already had been able to
receive computers and software through federal funding, channeled through the
city's Board of Education, said Nora Murphy, spokeswoman for the schools of the
Archdiocese of New York. The decision will allow that practice to continue, she
said.
"This will benefit the students academically in a world where
computer knowledge is more and more necessary," she said.
Officials at
other schools expected a much bigger impact. "I've been begging the community
for computers," said Brother Nassir Ali-Akber, principal of Al-Iman School in
Jamaica, where there are only 13 computers for 250 students.
The high
court ruled during the 1970s that government funds could not be used to provide
any material other than textbooks to parochial schools. But in more recent years
the court appeared to have eased that approach, allowing remedial help at such
schools.
Yesterday, the justices upheld the federal Elementary
and Secondary Education Act of 1965. That law gives public school
districts money for special services and instructional equipment and requires
them to share the equipment in a "secular, neutral and nonideological" way with
students enrolled in private schools within the district's boundaries.
LOAD-DATE: June 29, 2000
