Last updated on January 30th, 2020 at 10:32 am<\/p>\n
Millions of America\u2019s school children are trapped in failing public schools. This is especially so in urban areas that are often heavily populated by racial minorities. Their parents lack the resources to send their children to private schools, and the power of teacher unions prevent them from holding public schools accountable. But a case heard last week by the US Supreme Court holds the potential to upend the education system and give parents considerably more power, and resources, to help their children receive a quality education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the landmark case of Espinoza v Montana Department of\nRevenue<\/em>, three mothers are suing to invalidate a state constitutional\nprovision that prohibits public monies from being used to send children to\nprivate schools, including religious schools. Nearly 40 US states have similar\nconstitutional provisions, called \u201cBlaine Amendments.\u201d The mothers want to\nreinstate a Montana scholarship program benefitting underprivileged families\nthat provided public scholarship funds that parents could use to send their\nchildren to private schools, including religious schools. The mothers argue\nthat the state constitutional provision amounts to illegal discrimination\nagainst them because of their faith, and according to news reports it appears\nthat a majority of the US Supreme Court members may agree with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n School choice advocates hope that the Supreme Court will\ninvalidate the Blaine Amendments as violating the US Constitution. This will\nopen the door for states to consider voucher and similar school-choice programs\nthat give parents the ability to enroll their children in private, including\nreligious, schools that have a far better track record of providing a quality\neducation. Teachers unions and educational bureaucrats strongly oppose school\nchoice programs because they eliminate their strangle-hold on public education,\nand have used Blaine Amendments to hinder the school choice movement from\nadvancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the US Supreme Court agrees that Blaine Amendments such\nas the one in Montana are unconstitutional, this case could become one of the\nmost important Supreme Court decisions in many years, potentially impacting\nmillions of families. A decision is expected by June 2020 when the current\nSupreme Court terms concludes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Three mothers are suing to invalidate a state constitutional provision prohibiting public monies from being used to send children to private schools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":5690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"Three mothers are suing to invalidate a state constitutional provision prohibiting public monies from being used to send children to private schools.","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override":[{"single_blog_custom":"","sidebar":"","second_sidebar":"","share_position":"","share_float_style":"","post_date_format":"","post_date_format_custom":"","post_reading_time_wpm":"","zoom_button_out_step":"1","zoom_button_in_step":"1","number_popup_post":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"","single_post_gallery_size":""}],"trending_post_position":"","trending_post_label":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"511"},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[511],"tags":[911,631,641],"class_list":["post-5686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-family","tag-school","tag-supreme-court"],"yoast_head":"\n