Vermont voucher scheme violates church-state separation, court holds.

The use of government vouchers to pay for tuition at private religious schools violates the constitutional separation of church and state, a Vermont state court has ruled.

In a decision handed down June 27, Rutland County Superior Court Judge Alden T. Bryan held that the Chittenden Town School District may not pay for students to attend Mount Saint Joseph Academy, a Roman Catholic parochial school in nearby Rutland.

"Tuition payments from a school district to pervasively sectarian high schools, or the parents of children who attend, would have the effect of a direct subsidy to religious schools in violation of the United States and Vermont Constitutions," Bryan ruled.

The judge specifically rejected voucher proponents' claims that the U.S. Supreme Court's June 23 Agostini v. Felton decision allows religious school vouchers. Bryan insisted that vouchers are different from the controlled and indirect aid to New York City religious schools approved in Agostini.

Observed Bryan, "In the present case, however, public funds would be used to pay employees of a religious institution, who are bound by their contract to incorporate the teachings of the Roman Catholic church into their classes. This subsidization would not only create a `symbolic union' between church and state, it would create an actual and direct link. Publicly raised tax dollars would flow directly from the state to Mount Saint Joseph Academy."

Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and state hailed the vermont decision as a major legal milestone in the long-running and bitterly fought battle over tax aid to religious schools.

"This is a superb and timely decision," said Lynn. "Members of Congress and state legislators who thought the courts were ready to approve religious school voucher subsidies now know better. Taxpayers have a constitutional right to support only the churches and church schools of their choice, and the Vermont decision reaffirms that right."

Americans United and other civil liberties groups provided legal aid to Vermont residents who challenged the proposed voucher program in the Chittenden Town School District v. Vermont Department of Education case. Voucher proponents are expected to appeal to the Vermont Supreme Court.

In other news about vouchers:

* A pro-voucher group has filed suit to force the state of Maine to award vouchers to parents with children in parochial schools. Attorneys with the Institute for Justice, a libertarian group based in Washington, D.C., say parents in the rural community of Raymond should be allowed to send their children to religious schools at taxpayer expense.

* Minnesota has a new education tax credit that isn't supposed to be used to pay for private school tuition, but some parochial schools are trying to use it for that anyway. The law allows low-income parents to take a credit to pay for books, computers and instructional materials but not tuition.

Some private school administrators are changing the way parents are billed so the credit can be used for tuition. One way is to itemize school tuition so parents can claim the credit for the part covering books and educational materials.

* New York's legislature has once again passed a special law carving out a "public" school district for the Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the legislature's first attempt in 1994, and New York courts rejected a second law last year as Church & State went to press, Gov. George Pataki signed the bill into law.