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8 Av 5762 - July 17, 2002 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
U.S Aguda to NYS Officials: No State Constitutional Bar to Vouchers
by B. Isaac

In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision that educational vouchers do not violate the U.S. Constitution, attention is turning to the states, where most of the actual voucher programs to be proposed will be crafted.

It is widely believed that a major obstacle to such programs consists of what are known as "Blaine Amendments" -- clauses added to a number of state constitutions in the late 1800s and early 1900s that broadly forbid use of government funds in the service of religious institutions.

They are named after U.S. Congressman James G. Blaine, who sought in the 1870s to similarly amend the U.S. Constitution, an effort that failed. All the same, as many as 35 states have constitutional provisions that will likely be invoked by voucher opponents as preventing school choice programs.

New York's Blaine Amendment, which prohibits state aid to religious schools "directly or indirectly," is widely perceived to be one of the most restrictive of such provisions; and many "experts" have been quoted in the media to the effect that any voucher program in New York would be shot down under the state constitution.

Not so, say Agudath Israel's executive vice president for government and public affairs Chaim Dovid Zwiebel and associate general counsel Mordechai Biser. "The 'experts' are wrong; they are ignoring clear legal precedent. The Blaine Amendment is no barrier to vouchers in New York State."

The Agudath Israel attorneys made their point in a legal memorandum addressed to New York's Governor George Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and several other state officials who will be deciding, in the months ahead, whether to promote a voucher program in the Empire State.

The memo relies heavily on a decision by the state's highest court in 1967 -- the last time New York's Court of Appeals had occasion to interpret the state's Blaine Amendment -- in which New York's textbook assistance program was upheld against constitutional attack.

Despite the fact that children in religious schools across the state benefited from the textbook program no less than children in public schools, the court ruled that there was no violation of the Blaine Amendment "since there is no intention to assist parochial schools as such."

This decision, the Agudath Israel memo contends, would be directly applicable to any voucher program, since such programs' purpose is not "to assist parochial schools as such," but rather to help parents by maximizing their range of educational options. "So long as the range of options includes both religious and non- religious entities, and so long as there is no special incentive for parents to choose the religious option," the Blaine Amendment is not offended.

Rabbi Biser notes that Agudath Israel representatives are already busy in other states across the country as well, working with local voucher proponents to devise acceptable proposals in their respective jurisdictions. These efforts have attracted substantial notice, as in Chicago where a meeting among various voucher proponents convened by Agudath Israel Midwest director Yechiel Kalish was reported prominently in the Chicago Tribune.

"The Supreme Court gave our cause a major victory," reflects Rabbi Biser, "and now our work really begins."

 

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