COLLEEN HRONCICH AND SOLOMON CHEN.

• Author: Hroncich, Colleen
• Position: Choosing and funding schools

Let Educational Freedom Ring: "State lawmakers should use Carson v. Makin as inspiration as they push forward with school choice legislation. By funding students instead of a school system, they can help put every child on the path to a better future."

"IF OUR NEIGHBORS have the freedom to choose a private school and receive tuition from our town, why are we denied this same benefit just because we desire a religious education for our daughter?" This simple question, asked by Maine parents Alan and Judy Gillis, is at the heart of the Supreme Court's June ruling in Carson v. Makin. Fortunately for the Gillis family, and families throughout Maine, a majority of the Court agreed. In a 6-3 decision, the Court ruled that "Maine's 'nonsectarian' requirement for its otherwise generally available tuition assistance payments violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment."

Maine's tuition assistance program is one of the oldest school choice programs in the nation. Created in 1873, the program funds students from a town without a public school to attend a school of their parents' choice--whether private or public, in-state or out-ofstate. For more than a century, parents could direct these funds towards religious schools. In 1980, Maine Attorney General Richard S. Cohen released an opinion that said funding a child to attend a school with a "pervasively religious atmosphere" would be unconstitutional. In response, the legislature changed the law to prohibit families from using the tuition assistance at religious schools.

The Institute for Justice filed a Federal lawsuit in 2018 on behalf of three sets of parents--Alan and Judy Gillis, David and Amy Carson, and Troy and Angela Nelson--whose children qualified for the program but were prevented from directing funds towards the schools they preferred because those schools provided religious instruction. The district court initially found for the state and the First Circuit affirmed on appeal. In July 2021, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

In the Carson v. Makin ruling, as it did in Espinom v. Montana Department of Revenue (2020), the Court flatly rejected the respondent's claims that allowing religious schools to receive the tuition funds violates the First Amendment. Written by Chief Justice Roberts, the opinion states, "As noted, a neutral benefit program in which public funds flow to religious organizations through the independent choices of private benefit recipients does not...