Experts argue the constitutionality of the school reform movement's most controversial proposal.
Daryl Lindsey S chool voucher programs have managed to unite conservative politicians with fed-up inner city parents to form a movement to give public education money to families so they can choose whether to patronize private or parochial schools. But even as vouchers have picked up some political steam, they've lately been set back by the courts. A state judge in Florida ruled earlier this month that Gov. Jeb Bush's voucher plan violated a portion of the state's constitution mandating state-funded public education. Federal Court Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. ruled in December that the state voucher program in the city violated the Constitution because it mixed church and state. A program in Milwaukee, the oldest in the nation, was upheld by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1997.