{"id":9566,"date":"2011-04-04T11:12:27","date_gmt":"2011-04-04T18:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/?p=9566"},"modified":"2011-04-04T11:12:27","modified_gmt":"2011-04-04T18:12:27","slug":"supremes-hand-school-choice-another-huge-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/supremes-hand-school-choice-another-huge-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Supremes Hand School Choice Another Huge Victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

(NN&V Staff)<\/em> – The U.S. Supreme Court today reversed the Ninth Circuit\u2019s decision in Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn<\/em>, a legal challenge aimed at halting Arizona\u2019s highly successful and popular private school scholarship tax credit program. Today\u2019s landmark decision declared that the plaintiffs in the case lack standing to bring the challenge in the first instance because the program is funded by private contributions, not government funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s decision marks the fifth time in recent years that the Supreme Court has rebuffed efforts by school choice opponents to use the courts to halt programs that empower families to choose a private school education if that is where their child\u2019s needs will best be served,\u201d said Tim Keller, executive director of the Institute for Justice Arizona Chapter. \u201cIt is now crystal clear that only those individuals who have a direct stake in the outcome of a case have standing to challenge a school choice program in federal court.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1997, Arizona adopted the nation\u2019s first statewide scholarship tax credit program. Under that program, individuals who donate to nonprofit organizations (known as School Tuition Organizations) may take a dollar-for-dollar tax credit against their state income taxes, up to a maximum of $500 per taxpayer. The program requires that the School Tuition Organizations use 90 percent of the donations received to award tuition scholarships, thus enabling low- and middle-income parents to send their children to private schools.<\/p>\n

The ACLU of Arizona challenged Arizona\u2019s tax credit program on behalf of several state taxpayers alleging that by giving other taxpayers the ability to donate to religiously affiliated nonprofit organizations that the state was effectively advancing religion. A federal district court originally dismissed the ACLU\u2019s lawsuit, citing Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reinstated the suit because most taxpayers to date have donated to religiously affiliated charities. The Institute for Justice joined the Alliance Defense Fund\u2019s Petition for Review of the Ninth Circuit\u2019s decision, which argued that the plaintiffs lacked standing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Arizona taxpayers choose to contribute to [School Tuition Organizations], they spend their own money, not money the State has collected from respondents or from other taxpayers,\u201d wrote Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, for the 5-4 majority. \u201cWhile the State, at the outset, affords the opportunity to create and contribute to [a School Tuition Organization], the tax credit system is implemented by private action and with no state intervention. Objecting taxpayers know that their fellow citizens, not the State, decide to contribute and in fact make the contribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike contributions that lead to charitable tax deductions, contributions yielding [School Tuition Organization] tax credits are not owed to the State and, in fact, pass directly from taxpayers to private organizations. Respondents\u2019 contrary position assumes that income should be treated as if it were government property even if it has not come into the tax collector\u2019s hands. That premise finds no basis in standing jurisprudence,\u201d continued Kennedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cSchool choice is not only constitutional; it is also good public policy,\u201d Keller continued. \u201cEmpirical evidence shows that school choice programs improve outcomes for both children participating in the program and for children who attend public schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, a recent study by Dr. Vicki Murray, a senior policy fellow at the Pacific Research Institute, demonstrates that Arizona\u2019s scholarship program helps tens of thousands of low- and middle-income families attend private schools that would otherwise be foreclosed to them. Dr. Murray\u2019s paper is available from Harvard University\u2019s Program on Education Policy and Governance here<\/strong><\/em><\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the success of school choice programs in improving educational outcomes, many states are right now considering innovative education reforms, including scholarship tax credit programs modeled on the Arizona program at issue in today\u2019s Supreme Court decision,\u201d said Richard D. Komer, senior attorney with the Institute for Justice. \u201cToday\u2019s decision should embolden state legislators to move aggressively ahead with reforms that expand parental choice and empower parents to choose from among a wide array of public, and private and religious schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tens of thousands of Arizona families relying on the tax credit scholarship program can now breathe a sigh of relief and rest assured that Arizona\u2019s school choice programs are on sound constitutional footing,\u201d said Chip Mellor, president and general counsel of the Institute for Justice. \u201cAnd while those who oppose school choice must abandon their efforts to challenge school choice programs under the First Amendment, they will no doubt continue to employ state constitutional provisions in an effort to thwart parental choice. They too can rest assured that the Institute for Justice will be there to defend school choice programs both in the courts of law and in the court of public opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Institute for Justice recently successfully defended Arizona\u2019s Corporate Scholarship Tax Credit Program in state court in Green v. Garriott, which helps several thousand low-income families attend private schools, as well as the Arizona Supreme Court\u2019s 1999 decision in Kotterman v. Killian, which also upheld the individual tax credit against a nearly identical legal challenge to Winn. IJ was also instrumental in securing the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s 2002 decision in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris that upheld Cleveland\u2019s school voucher program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(NN&V Staff) – The U.S. Supreme Court today reversed the Ninth Circuit\u2019s decision in Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn, a legal challenge aimed at halting Arizona\u2019s highly successful and popular private school scholarship tax credit program. Today\u2019s landmark decision declared that the plaintiffs in the case lack standing to bring the challenge in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9566"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9566"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9568,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9566\/revisions\/9568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}