Opinion ID: 2058058
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Zelman v. Simmons-Harris

Text: [¶ 33] In Zelman, a group of Ohio taxpayers filed suit to enjoin an Ohio tuition assistance program that provided public funds for tuition at schools of the parents' choice, including private, religious schools. 536 U.S. at 648, 122 S.Ct. 2460. The program had been enacted in response to a crisis in the Cleveland public schools. Id. at 644, 122 S.Ct. 2460. All of the schools in the district were failing, and the federal district court had placed the entire school district under State control. Id. The State enacted the program to provide educational choices to families with children who reside in the ... District, where few parents in the district had the means to send their children to private schools. Id. at 643-44, 122 S.Ct. 2460. [¶ 34] Any private school, religious or nonreligious, was eligible to participate in the program, provided it was located within or adjacent to a covered district and met statewide educational standards. Id. at 645. Participating schools had to agree not to discriminate on the basis of race, religion, or ethnic background, or to advocate or foster unlawful behavior or teach hatred of any person or group on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion. Id. (quotation marks and citation omitted.) Tuition aid was distributed to parents according to financial need. Id. at 646. Where tuition aid is spent depends solely upon where parents who receive tuition aid choose to enroll their child. If parents choose a private school, checks are made payable to the parents who then endorse the checks over to the chosen school. Id. In the 1999-2000 school year, ninety-six percent of the children who participated in Ohio's tuition assistance program enrolled in religious-affiliated schools. Id. at 647, 122 S.Ct. 2460. [¶ 35] The Supreme Court determined that the Ohio program did not violate the Establishment Clause. The Court focused not on whether a religious institution benefited from receipt of public funds, but on the fact that the funds were channeled indirectly to that institution as a result of private choice. Id. at 652-53, 122 S.Ct. 2460. The Court reasoned as follows: [W]here a government aid program is neutral with respect to religion, and provides assistance directly to a broad class of citizens who, in turn, direct government aid to religious schools wholly as a result of their own genuine and independent private choice, the program is not readily subject to challenge under the Establishment Clause. A program that shares these features permits government aid to reach religious institutions only by way of the deliberate choices of numerous individual recipients. The incidental advancement of a religious mission, or the perceived endorsement of a religious message, is reasonably attributable to the individual recipient, not to the government, whose role ends with the disbursement of benefits. Id. at 652, 122 S.Ct. 2460. Thus, after Zelman, public tuition subsidies to students to attend sectarian educational institutions may be permissible under the Establishment Clause if the financial assistance program has a valid secular purpose, provides benefits to a broad spectrum of individuals who can exercise genuine private choice among religious and secular options, is paid through the students' parents, and is neutral toward religion. Id.