Florida's anti-voucher ruling challenged.A voucher school advocacy group is looking to change the Florida state's uniformity clause so it would allow for public funds See Fund, 3. See also: Public to go toward voucher school programs in the Sunshine state. The Alliance for School Choice, based in Phoenix, is exploring various options, including a constitutional amendment to change the state's uniformity clause, which is the ground upon which the Florida Supreme Court struck down the state's voucher program in January. The Florida Supreme Court claimed the state's Opportunity Scholarship Program, which serves 733 of the state's 2.4 million public school students, violates a constitutional mandate that the state provide a uniform and effective, high quality system of public schools by taking public dollars to benefit private schools. "The court then goes on to note an exception to that for students who are disabled or economically disadvantaged," says Clint Bolick Clint Bolick (born December 26,1957 in Elizabeth, New Jersey[1]), is the director of the Goldwater Institute Center for Constitutional Litigation in Phoenix, Arizona. , president and general counsel of Alliance for School Choice. "It's a genuinely complex decision." Bolick adds that the opinion likely does not jeopardize other school voucher A school voucher, also called an education voucher, is a certificate by which parents are given the ability to pay for the education of their children at a school of their choice, rather than the public school (UK state school) to which they were assigned. programs in other states or cities in the U.S., including Milwaukee and Cleveland. "I don't think this opens up any Pandora's box Pandora’s box contained all evils; opened up, evils escape to afflict world. [Rom. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 799] See : Evil for school choice," he says. Wisconsin does have a uniformity clause, but the Supreme Court there ruled that the uniformity guarantee is a "floor not a ceiling" for legislative activities in support of education. Choice is over and above the uniform public school system, Bolick adds. But he says that Ohio does not have a uniformity clause. Plaintiffs had argued, unsuccessfully, that the state constitution does guarantee public education, and the constitution forbade for·bade v. A past tense of forbid. forbade or forbad Verb the past tense of forbid forbade forbid private school choice programs. The court rejected that opinion. When asked why public funds should continue to go toward private schools, Bolick says: "We have a wonderful precedent at the post-secondary level in the GI Bill and Pell Grants The Pell Grant program is a type of post-secondary, educational federal grant program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. It is named after U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell and originally known as the the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant program. . We seem to be very comfortable with the notion that ... students can pursue higher education higher education Study beyond the level of secondary education. Institutions of higher education include not only colleges and universities but also professional schools in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. using public funds at public or private institutions. "And the crucial question is, are we supporting public education? Or are public schools ... an exclusive means to achieve that," he asks. |
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