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November 27, 2006

Columnist: Arizona lawsuit destined to fail

Back in 1999, the state Supreme Court ruled in Kotterman that educational tax credits are constitutional.  Cato's Adam Schaeffer suggests the ACLU and People for the American Way are no more likely to win this time around:

It is unlikely that the current Arizona court will overturn such a strong and recent precedent. Tim Keller, executive director of the Arizona chapter of the Institute for Justice and an attorney defending the choice programs, says that a "decision overturning Kotterman would be shocking."

The Kotterman decision provides hope for the voucher programs as well. Although there is no dispute that education vouchers constitute "public funds," the funds are given to parents, not to schools. The Kotterman opinion ruled that the intervening step of parental choice among both religious and secular options means the funds benefit the children, not a religious school they may happen to choose. The U.S. Supreme Court found the voucher program in Ohio constitutional on similar grounds, as did the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Although the voucher program has more hurdles to clear, all three programs should be upheld as constitutional. The forces of educational stagnation will fail in their attack on school choice in Arizona, and this will be the beginning of their end.

I think everybody knew a lawsuit against the two voucher programs was en route.  But I was personally surprised at the lawsuit against the corporate tax credit program; as Schaeffer and Keller both point out, tax credits have been settled law in the state since '99.  For whatever reason, school choice opponents have decided to rehash battles from the last decade. 

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