Opinion ID: 1441344
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Maine Tuition Program Today

Text: [¶ 55] Nonetheless, pointing to the efforts undertaken by a few other state legislatures to include religious schools in various school aid programs, the parents urge us to conclude that Maine's tuition program can no longer withstand a constitutional challenge because it continues to exclude religious schools. Maine's tuition program has not changed in any substantive manner since the exclusion was enacted in 1981. The program still provides direct tuition payment to the school of the parents' choice. With the exception of certain certification requirements, it does not place any restrictions or limitations on the use of the funds or the content of the course offerings. It therefore continues to provide for a payment of a substantial amount of money directly to the schools participating in the program. [¶ 56] A careful review of the teachings of Mueller, Zobrest, Witters and Agostini, leads us to conclude that, notwithstanding the shifts in Establishment Clause jurisprudence since the enactment of the religious school exclusion, in the absence of that exclusion, Maine's tuition program would violate the Establishment Clause. [¶ 57] We undertake this analysis within the framework utilized by the Agostini Court, asking first whether the statute has a secular legislative purpose. We conclude, as have most other courts addressing similar questions, that the education of the State's children is of such paramount importance that it provides a valid secular reason for state expenditures. See, e.g., Committee for Pub. Educ. & Religious Liberty v. Nyquist, 413 U.S. at 773, 93 S.Ct. 2955. Indeed, there are few other governmental pursuits that involve such important public policy considerations and such an extensive history of governmental involvement. We conclude therefore, [a]s has often been true in school aid cases, there is no dispute as to the first test. School Dist. v. Ball, 473 U.S. 373, 383 (1985). See also Mueller v. Allen, 463 U.S. 388, 394, 103 S.Ct. 3062, 77 L.Ed.2d 721 (1983). [¶ 58] We next ask whether the program, without the exclusion, would have the impermissible effect of advancing religion. Agostini at 219, 117 S.Ct. 1997. [29] Here, we conclude that the tuition program, without the religious school exclusion, would indeed have the effect of advancing religion. [¶ 59] In contrast to programs that provide secular textbooks to children in religious schools ( Allen ), that provide special education teachers to children at religious schools ( Agostini ), that allow an interpreter to assist a hearing impaired child on religious school grounds ( Zobrest ), or that provide tax benefits to parents who must pay for their children's education ( Everson ), the Maine tuition program provides a direct financial subsidy to the schools. Each of the programs approved by the Supreme Court provide specific limited services to children in religious schools or provide limited financial benefits to the parents of those children, only indirectly benefitting the religious school. [30] [¶ 60] Maine's tuition program, however, results in state monies flowing directly to the religious institution, thereby funding the bulk of the school's costs for the education (religious and secular) of the child at issue. The tuition is based on the individual school's expenditures, capped by a state average, the payments are made directly to the school, and no limit or restriction is placed on the use of the State's payment by the schools. Although the school is chosen by parents, not the State, choice alone cannot overcome the fact that the tuition program would directly pay religious schools for programs that include and advance religion. [¶ 61] None of the Supreme Court's decisions to date have ever intimated that such direct subsidies of religious schools could survive an Establishment Clause challenge. [31] Indeed, in the case relied on most heavily by the parents, Agostini, the Court found it important that No Title I funds ever reach the coffers of religious schools. Agostini, 521 U.S. at 228, 117 S.Ct. 1997 (distinguishing Committee for Pub. Educ. & Religious Liberty v. Regan, 444 U.S. 646, 657-59, 100 S.Ct. 840, 63 L.Ed.2d 94 (1980)). Moreover, the Agostini Court found it significant that the services provided at the religious school supplemented rather than supplanted the costs that would otherwise be born by that school. See id. at 229, 117 S.Ct. 1997. In Maine, the tuition payment paid by the State to the chosen school would substantially supplant the costs that would otherwise be borne by the school. To allow the State to do so for religious schools would directly contradict the teachings of Agostini. As the Fourth Circuit recently noted, [t]he Supreme Court has never upheld a direct transfer of monies to a pervasively sectarian institution to fund its core educational functions. Columbia Union College v. Clarke, 159 F.3d 151, 162 (4th Cir.1998). [¶ 62] The direct, substantial, and unrestricted nature of the financial benefit provided to a recipient school is starkly demonstrated by the record in this case. According to the calculations of the Department of Education, if Cheverus had been approved to receive tuition under the program, it could have received up to $5,379.63 per student, per year. The 1997-1998 tuition for a student attending Cheverus was $5,450. Thus, the tuition program would have covered almost the entire payment expected from parents. While the standard tuition payment at Cheverus does not cover the entire cost to the school per student, it does cover approximately 70% of those costs. [32] That kind of direct cash aid from the State to a religious institution is neither the attenuated financial benefit approved in Mueller, nor aid that directly aids [only] the educational functions approved in Agostini. [¶ 63] Nor can it be disputed that the educational functions of Cheverus are intertwined with its religious goals. As it sets forth in its Purposes and Objectives, Cheverus regards the education of character (moral and spiritual education) as its most important purpose and objective as a school. The school works to implement the objective through a doctrinally faithful and morally challenging program of religious education and through liturgies, retreats, and community service. Full tuition payments to a religious school such as Cheverus would provide a direct, not attenuated, benefit and would directly aid the religious as well as the educational functions of the school. [¶ 64] Finally, we address the State's concern that the elimination of the exclusion would result in excessive entanglement of the government in religious affairs. [33] Not all entanglements, of course, have the effect of advancing or inhibiting religion.... Entanglement must be `excessive' before it runs afoul of the Establishment Clause. Agostini, 521 U.S. at 233, 117 S.Ct. 1997. Signaling the lowering of the high and impregnable walls between church and state referred to in earlier cases, the Court in Agostini opined that [i]nteraction between church and state is inevitable.... and we have always tolerated some level of involvement between the two. Id. (citations omitted). [¶ 65] Although, by this language, we understand the Court to have announced a greater tolerance of interaction between church and state, [34] the Agostini Court unambiguously affirmed its previous holdings that excessive entanglement will run afoul of the Establishment Clause. Id. The question therefore becomes: what level of interaction constitutes an excessive amount. To assess entanglement, we review three aspects of the interaction between the State and the religious school: (1) the character and purposes of the schools that are benefitted; (2) the nature of the aid that the State provides; and (3) the resulting relationship between the religious school and the State. See id. at 232, 117 S.Ct. 1997. [¶ 66] We have addressed the first two aspects previously. In the absence of the exclusion, the institutions benefitted by the tuition program would include public, private, and private-religious schools, including those that are pervasively sectarian. The nature of the aid is direct cash payments, unrestricted in use, to the schools. [¶ 67] The third aspect, the resulting relationship between the State and the religious school, is more difficult to quantify. The school must report annually to the commissioner the information the commissioner may require. 20-A M.R.S.A. § 2952. The school must submit its books, accounts, financial documents and reports to the commissioner for review and audit. See 20-A M.R.S.A. § 2953. The school will be subject to any rules duly adopted by the commissioner regarding tuition charges, accounting, audits, contracts and other aspects of schooling privileges arranged between it and the school administrative units. See 20-A M.R.S.A. § 2954. In the abstract, these requirements have the appearance of creating an excessive entanglement. We could not, however, make a final determination on this issue on the record before us. Because the tuition program has not included religious schools for the past 18 years and has therefore not encountered problems of entanglement, neither the rules nor the practical application of the statutory requirements were addressed in detail in the Superior Court. [35] [¶ 68] If the level of interaction between the State and Cheverus, absent the exclusion, were potentially dispositive in this case, we would remand the matter for further development of the record. Because we conclude, however, that the undisputed facts in the record make it abundantly clear that the tuition program, consisting of substantial unrestricted cash payments to religious institutions, would have an impermissible effect of advancing religion, we are not required to reach a final determination regarding the entanglement problem. A statute that has the effect of advancing religion violates the Establishment Clause, whether or not it results in an impermissible level of interaction between church and state. [¶ 69] In a final effort to overcome the Establishment Clause impediment, the parents turn to several Free Speech decisions of the Supreme Court. This effort is also unavailing. In Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263, 102 S.Ct. 269, 70 L.Ed.2d 440 (1981), the Court struck down a public university's exclusion of religious organizations from the use of the university's meeting rooms and facilities, holding that [t]he Constitution forbids a State to enforce certain exclusions from a forum generally open to the public, even if it was not required to create the forum in the first place. Id. at 267-68, 102 S.Ct. 269. In a similar case, the Court found that the University of Virginia had violated the Free Speech principles of the First Amendment when it declined to reimburse religious groups for printing costs but provided reimbursement for all other groups. See Rosenberger v. Rector & Visitors of the Univ. of Virginia, 515 U.S. 819, 115 S.Ct. 2510, 132 L.Ed.2d 700 (1995). [¶ 70] The issue before us is wholly distinct from those cases. The parents cannot assert that they have been denied a forum for any type of speech. Rather, they seek to have the State pay for their children's education. Moreover, the Rosenberger Court explicitly distinguished school aid cases when it noted that [t]his case is not controlled by the principle that special Establishment Clause dangers exist where the government makes direct money payments to sectarian institutions,... since it is undisputed that no public funds flow directly into [the religious group]'s coffers under the program at issue. Id. at 821, 115 S.Ct. 2510 (citations omitted). [¶ 71] That state funds would flow directly into the coffers of religious schools in Maine were it not for the existing exclusion cannot be debated. If the religious school exclusion were eliminated, the State would likely pay more than $5,000 per student per year to Cheverus High School, without restriction on the use of those funds. In the entire history of the Supreme Court's struggle to interpret the Establishment Clause it has never concluded that such a direct, unrestricted financial subsidy to a religious school could escape the strictures of the Establishment Clause. While it may be possible for the Legislature to craft a program that would allow parents greater flexibility in choosing private schools for their children, the current program could not easily be tailored to include religious schools without addressing significant problems of entanglement or the advancement of religion. It is up to the Legislature, not the courts, to determine whether and how to attempt to structure such a program. [36] [¶ 72] Accordingly, we conclude that the current exclusion of religious schools from Maine's tuition program does not violate the Free Exercise or Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment or the Equal Protection mandates of the Fourteenth Amendment. Because we affirm the judgment of the Superior Court, we do not reach the parents' challenge to the court's dismissal of the cause of action against the Town of Raymond or the defendants' challenge to the trial court's evidentiary rulings. The entry is Judgment affirmed. CLIFFORD, J., dissenting. [¶ 73] Although I have little quarrel with much of the Court's analysis of current Supreme Court case law as it relates to the constitutionality of Maine's public and private school tuition program, I disagree with its final conclusion that the program is constitutional. In my view, the program, as presently constituted, violates the rights of the parents guaranteed by the Equal Protection Clauses of the federal and state constitutions. [37] Accordingly, I respectfully dissent. [¶ 74] Applying to towns without their own public school system, 20-A M.R.S.A. § 5204 allows parents to choose the schools their children will attend, providing for the payment of tuition to private as well as public schools. Title 20-A M.R.S.A. § 2951(2), however, excludes sectarian schools from the choices available to the parents solely because of religious affiliation. See 20-A M.R.S.A. § 2951(2). Thus, the program is not neutral toward, but rather discriminates against, religion. [¶ 75] The Equal Protection Clauses [38] prohibit disparate treatment of similarly situated persons. See Nugent v. Town of Camden, 1998 ME 92, ¶ 15, 710 A.2d 245, 249 (quoting Wellman v. Department of Human Servs., 574 A.2d 879, 883 (Me.1990) (The prohibition against denial of equal protection of the law to any person is implicated only when action by the state results in treatment of that person [that is] different than that given similarly situated individuals.)). The tuition program clearly results in disparate treatment. In towns without a public school system, parents who desire to send their children to sectarian private schools are treated differently from parents who choose nonreligious private schools. Tuition is paid only for those private schools that are nonsectarian. [¶ 76] Despite the statute's blatant discrimination against religion, the Court finds no constitutional violation because, the Court concludes, making religious schools eligible for the tuition program would itself violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. [¶ 77] The Court concludes that including religious schools in the tuition program, as it is presently constituted, would probably result in noncompliance with Establishment Clause law. This is so because the tuition is paid directly to the schools and is substantial in amount, covering nearly the entire costs of the schools' programs. Moreover, the program, as presently designed, places few restrictions on the use of the money. The tuition could be used to benefit the religious as well as the secular educational aspects of the school. See Columbia Union College v. Clarke, 159 F.3d 151, 162 (4th Cir.1998). [¶ 78] In my view, however, the analysis cannot end there. The Establishment Clause is not the only constitutional provision implicated in this challenge to Maine's education tuition statute. The parents also allege a violation of their right to equal protection of the law. [¶ 79] Because the disparate treatment mandated by the statute is based on religion, implicating the most fundamental of the parents' constitutional rights, we must subject the statute to a strict scrutiny analysis. See School Admin. Dist. No. 1, 659 A.2d at 857; Choroszy v. Tso, 647 A.2d 803, 808 (Me.1994). The burden of justifying the discrimination is on the defendants. First, they must demonstrate that the classification excluding religious schools is justified by a compelling governmental interest. Second, they must show that the means chosen by the State to carry out the purpose of the program is narrowly tailored to the achievement of that goal. See Wygant v. Jackson Bd. of Educ., 476 U.S. 267, 274, 106 S.Ct. 1842, 90 L.Ed.2d 260 (1986). [¶ 80] The stated goal of the tuition program is laudable. It gives parents in towns without public schools a wide choice of schools, public and private, for their children to attend, and it does so without running afoul of the Establishment Clause. [39] The means chosen by the State to achieve its goal, however, must be narrowly tailored to the accomplishment of that objective. [40] See Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena, 515 U.S. 200, 237, 115 S.Ct. 2097, 132 L.Ed.2d 158 (1995) (a race-based classification necessary to further a compelling government interest is within constitutional constraints if it satisfies the narrowly tailored test ... set out in previous cases). To determine whether a classification is narrowly tailored, courts must consider whether lawful alternative and less restrictive means could have been used. Wygant, 476 U.S. at 280 n. 6, 106 S.Ct. 1842 (citing Ely, The Constitutionality of Reverse Discrimination, 41 U. CHI. L. REV. 723, 727, n. 26 (1974) (classification must fit with greater precision than any alternative means)). [41] Fundamentally, narrow tailoring analysis asks whether a program is overinclusive or underinclusive to serve the purposes of the specific compelling interest on which the program is based. Wessmann v. Gittens, 160 F.3d 790, 828 (1st Cir.1998) (Lipez, J., dissenting). We must therefore ask if the complete and total exclusion of religious schools is necessary to accomplish the goal of the tuition program? See Wygant, 476 U.S. at 280, 106 S.Ct. 1842 (describing the means chosen by a State to accomplish its purpose under the strict scrutiny test). In my view, there is no need to totally exclude religious schools from the program in order to conform with the Establishment Clause. [¶ 81] As the Court notes, in recent years, the Supreme Court has become less hostile to legislative attempts to provide aid to parents who choose to educate their children in religious schools. Recent cases demonstrate that aid programs that treat religion in a neutral fashion have been looked on favorably by both state courts and the Supreme Court. See Kotterman v. Killian, 193 Ariz. 273, 972 P.2d 606 (1999) (citing Supreme Court cases). See also Agostini v. Felton, 521 U.S. 203, 117 S.Ct. 1997, 138 L.Ed.2d 391 (1997); Rosenberger v. Rector & Visitors of the Univ. of Va., 515 U.S. 819, 115 S.Ct. 2510, 132 L.Ed.2d 700 (1995); Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills Sch. Dist., 509 U.S. 1, 113 S.Ct. 2462, 125 L.Ed.2d 1 (1993); Witters v. Washington Dept. of Serv. for the Blind, 474 U.S. 481, 106 S.Ct. 748, 88 L.Ed.2d 846 (1986); Mueller v. Allen, 463 U.S. 388, 103 S.Ct. 3062, 77 L.Ed.2d 721 (1983). These cases reflect a change from what was perceived to be a hostility toward religion to a benign neutrality. [42] [¶ 82] In Agostini, the Supreme Court reiterated that the issue in Establishment Clause cases is whether the government acted with the purpose of advancing or inhibiting religion ... [and] whether the aid has the effect of advancing or inhibiting religion. 521 U.S. at 222-23, 117 S.Ct. 1997. The Supreme Court, however, acknowledged that it has departed from the rule ... that all government aid that directly aids the educational function of religious schools is invalid. Id. at 225, 117 S.Ct. 1997. [¶ 83] Several states have recently enacted programs to expand educational choices for parents. In Ohio, scholarships are provided to parents to send their children to private schools, including religious schools. See Simmons-Harris v. Goff, Nos. 96APE08-982, 96APE08-991, 1997 WL 217583 at  (Ohio Ct.App., May 1, 1997). In Wisconsin, state issued tuition vouchers allow low income parents to send their children to private schools, including religious schools. See Jackson v. Benson, 218 Wis.2d 835, 578 N.W.2d 602, 607-09 (1998), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 119 S.Ct. 466, 142 L.Ed.2d 419 (1998). And in Arizona, persons donating to school tuition organizations are allowed a state tax credit of up to $500. See Kotterman v. Killian, 972 P.2d 606, 609-10 (Ariz. 1999). [¶ 84] In my view, the recent evolution of Establishment Clause jurisprudence and the programs being enacted in several states make it clear that the total exclusion of religious schools from a tuition program providing aid to parents of children attending private as well as public schools is not essential. Establishment Clause violations may be avoided by a tuition program that does not entirely exclude religious schools, but provides more limited tuition with reasonable restrictions conditioning the use of that aid. In Jackson v. Benson , for example, the Wisconsin Supreme Court found no Establishment Clause violation in a tuition voucher program that provided substantial monetary aid to religious schools without restriction on how the aid was used because the program: selects its beneficiaries based on random, nonreligious criteria; provides an opt-out provision that prevents private schools from requiring students to participate in religious activities; sends the economic aid to the religious school in the form of checks that must be endorsed by the parents; and limits the amount of tuition subsidy to the lesser of the Milwaukee Public School per student state aid or the private school's operating and debt service cost per pupil. 578 N.W.2d at 609. [¶ 85] A tuition program with similar or greater restrictions and conditions could be fashioned within the framework of the current statute with very little effort on the part of the State. Tuition in less substantial amounts could be authorized to benefit parents of children in religious schools. The tuition aid could be directed through the parents to avoid restrictions on direct aid and the State could require participating schools to accept an opt-out provision. In addition to the restrictions set forth in the Wisconsin program, the State could adopt reasonable conditions and restrictions on the use of the State aid, insuring that the moneys would not be used to directly subsidize the religious functions of the schools, avoiding both direct aid of religion and excessive entanglement of the State in religion. See generally Mueller, 463 U.S. at 396-403, 103 S.Ct. 3062. [¶ 86] Although the legislature need not offer any aid to parents who choose private schools for their children, if such aid is provided, the Equal Protection Clause prohibits discrimination based on religion in a program providing such aid unless the discrimination is absolutely necessary to avoid Establishment Clause violations. In my view, the defendants cannot rely on the Establishment Clause to justify the present tuition program that blatantly discriminates on the basis of religion, when a more narrowly tailored tuition program could be created that would lessen the discrimination based on religion, while still complying with the Establishment Clause. The Establishment Clause prevents the government from establishing a church, passing laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another, or punishing individuals for professing particular religious beliefs. Everson v. Board of Educ., 330 U.S. 1, 15-16, 67 S.Ct. 504, 91 L.Ed. 711 (1947). It was not intended to provide States with a blanket justification for discriminating against religion. [¶ 87] I would vacate the judgment of the Superior Court and remand to that court for further proceedings.