Court Opinion

ID: 9687964
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:55:40.820711+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:33.802109
License: Public Domain

McCown, J.,
concurring.
I concur in the majority opinion. This is not the case in which to belabor unconstitutional church-state bogeymen. This case involves the lease of two classrooms in a parochial school by a public school district for the purpose of conducting classes under a federally funded special education services program for all public or private school pupils having need of it. The dissenting opinion misconceives the law and the facts. The dissent states: “The only purpose of the application, and the only purpose of the scheme, is to channel federal and state appropriated funds into the assistance of the education program of non-public schools * * That is simply not so. The special education services provided under the Act involved here are available to pupils of public schools and also to pupils of parochial and other non-profit private schools, and the entire program is under the direct supervision and control of the public school.
The dissent relies heavily upon Sanders v. Johnson, 403 U. S. 955, 91 S. Ct. 2292, 29 L. Ed. 2d 865, in which the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed a federal court decision involving a Connecticut statute. The dissent quotes extensively from the lower federal court case reported at 319 F. Supp. 421. The dissent, however, fails to note that the Johnson case quite clearly approved special education services of the kind involved here. In discussing the previous state policies and programs which the court approved, the court in that case stated: “The State made bus transportation, health and welfare services, and special education services available *15to students attending parochial and other non-profit private schools; * * * it was never supposed that these limited state activities constituted public control, endorsement, or ‘promotion’ of the secular education provided independently by parochial schools. Cf. Board of Education v. Allen, supra; Everson v. Board of Education, supra. The State gave aid to parochial school students and even extended some funds through a program for driver instruction and highway safety administered by their schools; but the only secular education ‘promoted’ with governmental endorsement was offered by the public schools.” The court then stated that the state act it held unconstitutional had “sharply altered” that former relationship between the State of Connecticut and its parochial schools and their students.
The dissent also relies heavily upon the case of Epeldi v. Engelking, 94 Idaho 390, 488 P. 2d 860. It need only be noted that in that case a direct state appropriation under a state statute was involved, and even in that connotation, the case represents a definite minority viewpoint.
The dissent here flatly asserts that the constitutional language of “any appropriation from any public fund * * * in aid of any sectarian or denominational school * * *” neither requires nor permits any interpretation whatever. It then proceeds to interpret it to mean that regardless of the primary public purpose, any appropriation from any public fund which results in or produces a direct or indirect benefit for any non-public educational institution or for its pupils is automatically unconstitutional. This is a distortion of the language and the underlying broad assumption is flatly contradicted by every Supreme Court case to date. If the dissent be correct, the State of Nebraska could not even appropriate funds to purchase or lease equipment or a building from a non-public educational institution for the exclusive use of the public school.
It is interesting to note that the federal act involved *16here became law in 1965 by act of Congress. Seven years have now passed, and we are unable to find a single court decision, state or federal, which has yet held that act unconstitutional under the federal or any state constitution. If the opinion expressed in the dissent were to become the opinion of this court, it would be the first time in history for a state court to declare a federal act unconstitutional because the federal funds were channeled through a state controlled distibution agency.
The constitutional issues posed by church-statie relationships are complicated and difficult of resolution. Nevertheless, the leasing of classrooms by a public school district from a parochial school for furnishing special education services for both public and parochial school pupils with funds provided by the United States government does not raise those issues.
Clinton, J., joins in this concurrence.