Supreme Court weighs mandating public funds for religious schools in Maine
At issue in the case is whether the state, which pays for some students to attend nonsectarian private schools, should also pay tuition for students to attend religious schools.
The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Wednesday in a case that could greatly expand state aid to religious schools. On one side are proponents of the school choice movement, and on the other is the state of Maine, which is defending the way it provides what it calls a public education for children.
In recent years, the Supreme Court's conservative majority has whittled, and sometimes hacked away at, the Constitution's wall of separation between church and state. That has been nowhere more apparent than in cases dealing with religious schools. In a series of cases, the court has upheld state-funded voucher programs for religious schools, and in a case from Montana last year, the
