Case Title: Chittenden Town School District v. VT Dept. of Education

Citation: 169 Vt. 310, 738 A.2d 539

Docket Number: 

State: vermont

Court: Vermont Supreme Court

Date: 1999-06-11T00:00:00Z

Document:
Chittenden Town School Dist. v. Dept. of Education (97-275); 169 Vt. 310; 
738 A.2d 539

[Filed 11-Jun-1999]

  NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to motions for reargument under V.R.A.P.
  40 as well as formal  revision before publication in the Vermont Reports. 
  Readers are requested to notify the Reporter  of Decisions, Vermont Supreme
  Court, 109 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05609-0801 of any  errors in
  order that corrections may be made before this opinion goes to press.

                                 No. 97-275

Chittenden Town School District	                       Supreme Court
and Cynthia Andrews, et al., Intervenors
                                                       On Appeal from
     v.		                                       Rutland Superior Court

Vermont Department of Education	                       March Term, 1998
and Elizabeth Sojourner, et al.,
Intervenors

Alden T. Bryan, J.

       John A. Facey, III of Reiber, Kenlan, Schwiebert, Hall & Facey,
  Rutland, and William H. Mellor, III, Clint Bolick and Richard D. Komer,
  Institute for Justice, Washington,  DC, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

       William H. Meub and Orland Campbell, Jr., of Keyser, Crowley, Meub,
  Layden, Kulig & Sullivan, P.C., Rutland, for
  Plaintiffs-Intervenors-Appellants Cynthia Andrews, et al.

       William H. Sorrell, Attorney General, Mark J. Di Stefano, Assistant
  Attorney General, and  Paul C. Fassler and Karen L. Richards, Special
  Assistant Attorneys General, Montpelier,  for Defendant-Appellee.

       Mitchell L. Pearl of Langrock Sperry & Wool, Middlebury, and Joel D.
  Cook, Vermont-NEA, Montpelier, for Defendants-Intervenors-Appellees
  Elizabeth Sojourner, et al.

       A. Jeffrey Taylor, Rutland, Martin S. Kaplan and Stephen A. Jonas of
  Hale and Dorr LLP, Boston, Massachusetts, and Lisa Thurau, New York, New
  York for Amicus Curiae National Committee for Public Education & Religious
  Liberty.  

  PRESENT:  Dooley, Morse and Johnson, JJ., and Allen, C.J. (Ret.) and
            Gibson, J. (Ret.),  Specially Assigned

       DOOLEY, J.  In this declaratory judgment action, we are again called
  upon to consider  the constitutional implications of the Vermont statutes
  authorizing school districts to provide high  school education to their
  students by paying tuition for nonpublic schools selected by their parents. 
  See 16 V.S.A. §§ 822 and 824.  In Campbell v. Manchester Board of School
  Directors, 161 Vt.  441,