Court Opinion

ID: 9609482
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:27:28.112184+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:50.824082
License: Public Domain

WESLEY E. BROWN, Chief District Judge
(concurring).
I concur in the opinion of this Court. Because of my strong feelings, however, that the decisions we are required to follow have the effect of prohibiting the free exercise of religious and academic freedom, I must speak out.
In the case before us we are dealing with grants to students who, by legislative fiat, are not children but adults with all of the responsibilities and obligations of adulthood.
It is clear also as we have said that the law, K.S.A. 72-6107 et seq., is on its face plainly constitutional by any standards involving First Amendment prohibitions. In Norwood v. Harrison, 413 U.S. 455, 93 S.Ct. 2804, 37 L.Ed.2d 723, we are advised that a school by school determination was required to determine that state aid is confined to secular education. The Court there said, “This school by school determination may be cumbersome but no more so than the State’s process of ascertaining compliance with educational standards. No presumptions flow from mere allegations ; no one can be required, consistent with due process, to prove the absence of violation of law.”
Thus under the law cited in our opinion we have been required to hold that the five colleges, because they require attendance at chapel or knowledge of a particular religious view, are fostering religion. Bethel College, in addition, goes somewhat further in its policies and in effect requires an adherence to its sectarian dogma.
Except for this action by Bethel I find no more sectarian adherence than a requirement by a college that in order to obtain a degree the student must have sufficient understanding and pass a course in English or a foreign language as a requirement to a degree.
The standards of academic freedom at the college level requires, not only the right to study a religious concept, but also a non-religious concept. The heretic teaching is as much a requirement of academic freedom as the advocacy of religious thought. The teaching of either discipline is a form of constitutionally required religious freedom.
As was pointed out by Justice White in his dissent in Committee for Public Education v. Nyquist, supra, 413 U.S. 756, 93 S.Ct. 2955, 37 L.Ed.2d 985, not all state aid to religion is completely barred in view of tax exemptions, bus transportation, and books which are provided to churches and parochial schools by many states.
It is time to paint with a broad brush and hold that a tuition grant to permit study at a religiously oriented college is not fostering religion. It is merely giving a grown man or woman the right to study secular and/or sectarian ideas as the individual sees fit. Only by such a policy will we have both academic and religious freedom. At the same time such policy would permit the use of facilities of private schools as an aid to *897education at the college level even though religiously oriented.
APPENDIX “A”
Article 61. — TUITION GRANTS FOR PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS
72-6107. Definitions. As used in this act, unless the context otherwise requires: (a) “Tuition grant” means an award under this act by this state to a qualified student.
(b) “Financial need” means the difference between a student’s available financial resources and such student’s total anticipated expenses to attend a certain accredited independent institution. A student’s financial resources shall include (1) four hundred and fifty dollars ($450) each year from his own work and resources, and (2) a contribution from his parents’ income and assets, if sufficient, as determined by a completed parents’ confidential statement and based upon the accepted criteria of a nationally recognized financial needs analysis agency. Financial need shall be redetermined at least annually.
(c) “Full-time in-state student” means a person who is a resident of Kansas and who is enrolled at an accredited independent institution in a course of study of at least twelve (12) hours each semester or the equivalent thereof. The commission shall determine the number of hours for terms other than semesters to constitute the equivalent of twelve (12) hours.
(d) “Qualified student” means a full-time in-state student who has established financial need and who is initially acceptable for entering an institution of higher learning or who has so entered and is in good standing and making satisfactory progress toward graduation.
(e) “Accredited independent institution” means an institution of higher learning located in Kansas which (1) is operated independently and not controlled or administered by any state agency or any subdivision of the state, (2) maintains open enrollment, and (3) is accredited by the north central association of colleges and secondary schools accrediting agency based on their requirements as of April 1, 1972.
(f) “Open enrollment” means the policy of an institution of higher learning of the opportunity of enrollment for any student who meets its academic and other reasonable enrollment requirements, without regard for race, sex, religion, creed or national origin.
(g) “Commission” means the state education commission established by K.S. A.1971 Supp. 72-6204.
(h) “Term” means one of two or more divisions of an academic year of an institution of higher learning in, which substantially all courses begin and end at substantially the same time, and during which instruction is regularly given to students.
(i) “Semester” means one of two principal terms, when there are only two principal terms in the academic year, whether or not there are other shorter terms during the same academic year.
72-6108. Awarding tuition grants; semesters limitation. A tuition grant may be awarded to any qualified student enrolled at any accredited independent institution, except that a qualified student may receive tuition grants for not more than eight (8) semesters of undergraduate study or the equivalent thereof. The commission shall determine the equivalent of eight (8) semesters when all or part of the terms for which a student receives tuition grants are not semesters.
72-6109. Amount of tuition grant to equal financial need; limitations. The amount of a tuition grant to a qualified student for the fall and spring semesters, or the equivalent thereof, shall be the amount of such student’s financial need for the period, except that tuition grants to a student in any year shall not exceed the lesser of:
(a) The total tuition and required fees of that student for two semesters, or the equivalent thereof, or
(b) one thousand dollars ($1,000).
*898When tuition grants are received by a student for one or more terms that are not semesters, the commission shall determine what is the equivalent of the fall and spring semesters.
72-6110. Payment of tuition grants; how certified and approved; dropout liability. A tuition grant may be made annually for both the fall and spring semesters, or the equivalent thereof. Payments under any such tuition grant shall be allocated equally between the semesters, when the student plans to attend two semesters in an academic year, and otherwise as specified by the commission. Tuition grants shall be paid at the beginning of each semester or other term upon certification by the accredited independent institution that the student is enrolled and is a qualified student. Payments under any tuition grant shall be made upon vouchers approved by the administrative officer of the commission designated by it, and upon receiving the same the director of accounts and reports shall issue his warrant to the student entitled thereto and shall cause such warrant to be delivered to the accredited independent institution in which such "student is, enrolled. If a student discontinues attendance before the end of any semester or other term, after receiving payment under a tuition grant, the entire amount which such student would otherwise qualify to have refunded, up to the amount of any payments made for tuition grants in the academic year, shall be paid by the accredited private institution to the state.
72-6111. Administration of act by state education commission; rules and regulations; apportionment of grants; qualification of institutions; information and reports. The state education commission shall administer this act and shall:
(a) Provide application forms and forms for parents’ confidential statements.
(b) Adopt rules and regulations for determining financial need, selecting financial needs analysis agencies, defining tuition and required fees, determining priority or apportionment of tuition grants and other matters necessary for the administration of this act. The commission may provide for apportionment of tuition grants if the appropriations for tuition grants are insufficient to pay all approved tuition grants. To determine who is an in-state student for the purpose of this act, the commission shall adopt rules and regulations consistent with statutes for determination of in-state students in universities and colleges under the state board of regents.
(e) Approve and award tuition grants.
(d) Determine those institutions of higher learning which qualify as accredited independent institutions.
(e) Make an annual report to the governor and legislature, and evaluate the tuition grant program for the period.
(f) The Commission may require any accredited independent institution to promptly furnish any information which the commission requests relating to administration or effect of this act.
72-6112. Applications for grants; parents’ confidential statements. Each applicant for a tuition grant, in accordance with the rules and regulations of the commission, shall:
(a) Complete and file an application for a tuition grant.
(b) Be responsible for the submission of the parents’ confidential statement to the commission and to the institution of higher learning at which such student is enrolling.
(e) Report promptly to the commission any information requested relating to administration of this act.
(d) File a new application and parents’ confidential statement annually on the basis of which his eligibility for a tuition grant shall be evaluated and determined.