Once in a great while, I make an accurate prediction. Not all of the time, of course, but it’s fun when it happens.
Way back in April, I said that I believed Colorado’s statewide voucher plan for religious schools would be struck down for its inconsistency with the state constitution.
“Article 9, Sec. 7 of the Colorado Constitution says the state can never ‘make any appropriation… to help support or sustain any school, academy, seminary, college, university or other literary or scientific institution, controlled by any church or sectarian denomination,'” I said. “This language is unambiguous. Because this new voucher plan includes private religious schools, it will necessarily run afoul of this law.”
Well, what do you know. A Denver state court yesterday came to the same conclusion I did.
“The goals of the voucher program are laudable,” wrote the judge, Joseph E. Meyer III of District Court. “However, even great ideas must be implemented within the framework of the Colorado Constitution.”
Though the state, led by ardent voucher advocate Gov. Bill Owens (R), has promised to appeal the decision, Meyer blocked implementation of the plan.
For those of us who oppose vouchers and support public schools, this was a huge victory. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that public funding of private religious education was consistent with the First Amendment (a conclusion I certainly disagree with), leaving voucher opponents with one last hope — state constitutions.
The Colorado case is the first case since the Supreme Court’s decision to challenge vouchers using a state constitutional provision. With this in mind, yesterday’s victory suggests we might be able to defeat similar voucher proposals elsewhere.