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Page Number: 16

12 

CARSON v. MAKIN 

Opinion of the Court 

“shall  pay  the  tuition  . . .  at  the  public  school  or  the  ap-
proved  private  school  of  the  parent’s  choice  at  which  the
student  is  accepted.”  Me.  Rev.  Stat.  Ann.,  Tit.  20–A, 
§5204(4).  The benefit is tuition at a public or private school,
selected by the parent, with no suggestion that the “private
school” must somehow provide a “public” education. 

This reading of the statute is confirmed by the program’s 
operation.  The differences between private schools eligible
to receive tuition assistance under Maine’s program and a 
Maine public school are numerous and important.  To start 
with the most obvious, private schools are different by def-
inition because they do not have to accept all students.  Pub-
lic schools generally do.  Second, the free public education
that Maine insists it is providing through the tuition assis-
tance program is often not free.  That “assistance” is avail-
able at private schools that charge several times the maxi-
mum  benefit  that  Maine  is  willing  to  provide.    See 
Stipulated  Record,  Exh.  2,  in  No.  1:18–cv–327  (Me.,  Mar. 
12, 2019), ECF Doc. 24–2, p. 11; Brief for Respondent 32. 

Moreover, the curriculum taught at participating private
schools  need  not  even  resemble  that  taught  in  the  Maine 
public  schools.    For  example,  Maine  public  schools  must 
abide  by  certain  “parameters  for  essential  instruction  in 
English  language  arts;  mathematics;  science  and  technol-
ogy; social studies; career and education development; vis-
ual  and  performing  arts;  health,  physical  education  and 
wellness;  and  world  languages.”    §6209.  But  NEASC-
accredited  private  schools  are  exempt  from  these  require-
ments, and instead subject only to general “standards and
indicators” governing the implementation of their own cho-
sen  curriculum.  Brief  for  Respondent  32;  see  NEASC,
Standards—20/20  Process  (rev.  Aug.  2021),  https://cis.
neasc.org/standards2020  (requiring,  for  instance,  that
“[c]urriculum  planning  supports  the  school’s  core  beliefs 
and the needs of the students,” and that the “[w]ritten cur-
riculum aligns horizontally and vertically”).