Wednesday, August 25, 1999
Judge halts voucher program
BY AMY BETH GRAVES
The Associated Press
CLEVELAND — A federal judge handed school voucher opponents a major victory Tuesday, ruling the tax-supported program cannot resume this year while he considers a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality.
U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. said the voucher opponents had a strong case.
Although many of the schools in the voucher program are set to open today, the judge said allowing the program to go forward could “cause an even greater harm to the children by setting them up for greater disruption at a later time.”
Hours later, national proponents of vouchers filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit in Cincinnati seeking to overturn the ruling that would dismantle the Pilot Project Scholarship Program, which has been in place for four years.
Opponents have until 10 a.m. today to file a response to the appeal, which a panel of three federal judges is expected to evaluate this week, said Mat thew Berry, staff attorney for the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Justice. That group filed the appeal.
“It's an emergency situation,” Mr. Berry said. “There are many students in the scholarship program that have already started school.”
Last month, a coalition of national and local civil liberties and public education groups sued, claiming the program violated the constitutional separa tion of church and state.
The program uses tax money, and nearly all of the 56 Cleveland schools that accept vouchers are religious.
The program is similar to one started earlier this month in Florida that is under attack by the same groups challenging Ohio's program.
Only Cleveland schools par ticipate in the Ohio program, which covers up to $2,500 in tuition costs per child for low-income families.
“This is a very remarkable step in the court battle over this for a federal district court in the very early stages to say the program is violating the U.S. Constitution,” said Joe Conn, spokesman for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, a Washington D.C., group that brought the lawsuit along with other groups.
Judge Oliver said while he sympathized with parents who were relying on the tuition vouchers, he could not allow the program to go forward without first determining its constitutionality.
“The judge is following the Constitution by saying public funds cannot be used to fund religious education. We're always pleased when a court upholds the Constitution,” said Judith Schaeffer, deputy legal director of People for the American Way, a Washington, D.C., civil liberties organization.
Voucher supporters responded angrily.
“This is an unmitigated disaster for schoolchildren in Cleveland,” said Clint Bolick, litigation director for the Institute for Justice.
Johnnietta McGrady, who enrolled two children at St. Thomas Aquinas with the help of vouchers, said she was “terrified” by the ruling.
“I really can't afford the private school now,” she said. “The kids will have to go to public school this year. There's no other way.”
Immediately after the ruling, Cleveland public school officials met to discuss contingency plans for the 77,000-student school district to absorb, if necessary, thousands of students. Officials asked parents to make sure their children could not attend voucher schools before trying to enroll them in the public school system.
Voucher opponents filed a similar lawsuit on the state level shortly after the Legislature started the program in 1995 in response to concern from Cleveland residents and public officials about the quality of education at the city's public schools.
The lawsuit worked its way up to the Ohio Supreme Court, which ruled in May that the program doesn't violate the legal separation of church and state but is still unconstitutional because of the way the Legislature created it.
The court said that by including the program in the 1995 general spending bill, lawmakers violated the Ohio Constitution's rule that the Legislature may address only one issue in each bill.
Last month, lawmakers revived the program by approving funding for it within a two-year education budget signed by Gov. Bob Taft, a supporter of the vouchers.
This year, 4,003 students from kindergarten through fifth grade have signed up to receive vouchers to attend private schools.
Program supporters said not allowing vouchers to be handed out this school year would ruin the experimental program because data should be collected for four continuous years to evaluate whether the program improves student performance.
Enquirer reporter Erin Gibson contributed to this report.
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