COURTS LET STATES' STEP TWOARD CHOICE STAND

The U. S. Supreme Court has done it again. Two years running now, by refusing to hear appeals, the high court has left in place a pathbreaking, state-level plan expanding parental freedom to choose any school -- public, private or parochial.

Opponents of school choice, manning the ramparts for the status quo, sing many constant refrains against this fundamental step toward equity and simple justice. Foremost in their songbook is the notion that any step toward empowering parents to make this choice violates the First Amendment and a supposed wall of separation between church and state.

It is precisely this bogus argument that court after state-level court is now rejecting. Next, the anti-school-choice crowd files their inevitable appeal to our highest court. That court then refuses to take the case, leaving the lower court ruling in place. Last year it was Wisconsin, whose supreme court had resoundingly approved a voucher-style school choice program for Milwaukee that provides low-income parents with scholarship money to spend at any school, including religious schools.

Readers should also know that Ohio's supreme court went out of its way this year to state that a voucher plan for low-income parents in inner-city Cleveland also passed constitutional muster. The reason, common to more and more of these plans: The money goes to parents, who exercise entire discretion over where and how the money is spent on tuition. As long as money goes to the parents, courts are saying, no constitutional problem is presented.

This past week, yet another appeal of a pro-school choice ruling came from Arizona. That state's supreme court upheld a pathbreaking plan allowing $500 tax credits for taxpayers making voluntary donations to private schools.

It must be conceded that the fact that the high court didn't take the case leaves us with no binding legal precedent. Still, if a majority of this court were itching to buy the argument that these bold, state-level steps toward school choice violated important constitutional guarantees, you can be certain they would seize any chance so to rule.

Of course, one day the high court will take a school choice case in which the crucial constitutional issues are squarely presented. We can only hope that day comes soon, for the cause of freedom to choose K-12 schools the way we have long enjoyed freedom to choose higher education is one that must be vindicated, and the sooner the better.