Opinion ID: 480192
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Incidental Expenses

Text: 38 Phan and Virginia disagree as to whether Phan litigated before the district court his right to be reimbursed for incidental expenses such as books, transportation and living expenses other than tuition and fees levied by St. Andrews. Phan's complaint requests that he be awarded all financial aid for his college expenses at St. Andrews that plaintiff would otherwise be entitled to if he were attending any other institution approved by the Attorney General of Virginia. Construed liberally, as befits a first amendment/equal protection claim, this seems to comprehend expenses incidental to attendance at St. Andrews. Phan presented evidence on these issues and argued this question in the post-trial brief submitted to the district court in lieu of closing argument. 39 In pressing his claim, Phan cannot draw much support from Almond v. Day, 197 Va. 419, 89 S.E.2d 851 (1955). There, construing a predecessor to Sec. 10, the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia discussed the distinction between tuition and fees, the payment of which the court found to aid directly the receiving institution, and textbooks and transportation. Instead of reading into the state constitution the child benefit theory approved in Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1, 67 S.Ct. 504, 91 L.Ed. 711 (1947) (New Jersey statute subsidizing transportation to and from parochial schools not an establishment of religion violative of the first amendment because benefits flow to child and parents, rather than to school), the Virginia court simply observed that, whatever the proper treatment of transportation subsidies, tuition subsidies were clearly improper because the student or his parents to whom payment is made acted simply as conduits for payment to the school. This holding was superseded by the adoption of the current Article VII, Sec. 10. 11 Almond v. Day thus provides no guidance on the question of incidental expenses; it is outdated jurisprudentially in that the federal establishment clause permits more state assistance to religion than it was thought to allow in 1955, and the result has been altered by state constitutional reform. Thus, on the question of incidental expenses, we write on a clean slate. 40 Under the current state of federal constitutional law, state subsidy of religiously affiliated institutions of higher learning as part of a neutral program of assistance to higher education lies within the permissible zone of accommodation. Thus, nothing disables Virginia from choosing to provide such financial assistance. Phan calls on us to hold that Virginia has exercised this choice in his favor. 41 Exercising caution appropriate to a federal court called upon to interpret a state constitution, we believe that the Virginia constitution does not prohibit reimbursement for Phan's incidental expenses. To begin with the easiest constitutional obstacle, we think that Article IV, Sec. 16 does not prohibit the requested reimbursement because the subsidy would go to Phan and would not enrich St. Andrews. Article VIII, Sec. 10 lays down the general rule that public appropriations shall not be made to nonpublic schools and then provides an exception for education of Virginia students in nonsectarian and public institutions in other states. Again, reimbursement for incidental expenses passes muster here because the subsidy plaintiff seeks would not be an appropriation to a disqualified school. Section 11, of course, is irrelevant, because it concerns only education in Virginia. 42 By analogy to the federal line of reasoning beginning with Everson and culminating most recently in Mueller v. Allen, 463 U.S. 388, 103 S.Ct. 3062, 77 L.Ed.2d 721 (1983) (permitting tax exemptions for public and private school expenses), it seems likely that Virginia would follow the prevailing view that subsidies directed to the student, who can use them where he pleases, do not constitute the appropriations to out-of-state sectarian schools prohibited by the Virginia constitution through its several provisions. 12 Thus, an independent grant program designed to assist the handicapped remains free to provide the requested reimbursement. 43 We therefore conclude that there is no Virginia constitutional barrier to Phan's entitlement to financial aid in reimbursement for incidental educational expenses such as books, transportation and living expenses other than tuition and fees exacted by St. Andrews. 44 REVERSED AND REMANDED.