School Choice Goes to Court. Again.

In Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, the Supreme Court ruled that government-funded school voucher programs allowing parents to choose any school, including a religious one, are constitutional.

Now it looks like education tax credit programs, an alternative to vouchers, are going to have their day in federal court as well.

The Supreme Court ruled on Sunday that state education tax credit programs can be litigated in federal courts, not just state ones, at least on certain specific grounds.

A state-based legal challenge to the Arizona education tax credit program was already defeated a few years ago, so school choice opponents decided to try their hand in federal court.

Up until Sunday's Supreme Court ruling, however, it wasn't clear whether or not federal courts even had the jurisdiction to hear a challenge to Arizona's program. Well, now they do.

I say "bring it!"

If government funded vouchers that all tax-payers must fund do not violate the Establishment Clause, then tax credits for voluntary donations to scholarship-granting organizations cannot possibly violate it either. They provide more freedom for taxpayers than do vouchers, and vouchers already have the Good Housekeeping seal of approval.

I wrote more extensively on the legality of education tax credit programs earlier this year for the Mackinac Center, in a big bruiser of an essay called Forging Consensus.