KINDER'S COMMENTARY: WISCONSIN'S HIGH COURT GIVES A BIG BOOST TO SCHOOL VOUCHERS

In the battle for parental freedom in education, June 10, 1998, will be remembered as breakout day. This was the day that the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in favor of a school choice plan for parents of poor, inner-city children in the failing Milwaukee public school system.

By Thursday morning, a sourpussed Barry Lynn of American United for Separation of Church and State was on TV pledging an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Like Bre'r Rabbit, supporters of school choice must hope so. As currently constituted, and tracking its recent decisions in this area, the High Court will almost certainly uphold the Wisconsin decision.

From humble beginnings in 1990, the Milwaukee Public Choice Plan has grown. It was expanded in 1995. Since then, qualifying poor parents have been free to take the $5,000 scholarship, or voucher money, to any school, public, private or parochial. That's right: Church schools too.

This feature surely won't survive, we were told. Surely it violates our Constitution, said Barry Lynn.

No, said the 4-2 court decision. In more than 44 pages of carefully reasoned, densely footnoted writing, Justice Donald Steinmetz' majority opinion painstakingly tracks all the relevant U.S. Supreme Court decisions in this area of the law. Some excerpts follow.

BOLD On whether expanded choice violates the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution, requiring separation of church and state:

"We conclude that the program doesn't violate the establishment clause because it has a secular purpose, it won't have the primary effect of advancing religion and it won't lead to excessive entanglement between the state and participating sectarian private schools."

BOLD On the secular purpose of school choice:

"The purpose of the program is to provide low-income parents with an opportunity to have their children educated outside of the embattled Milwaukee public schools."

BOLD On whether providing state aid to religious schools advances religion:

"A student qualifies for benefits ... not because he or she is a Catholic, a Jew, a Moslem or an atheist; it is because he or she is from a poor family and is a student in the embattled Milwaukee public schools. To qualify ... the student is never asked his or her religious affiliation or beliefs; nor is he or she asked whether the state aid will be used at a sectarian or non-sectarian private school ... ."

BOLD On excessive entanglement of state and religious schools:

"The program doesn't involve the state in any way with the school's governance, curriculum, or day-to-day affairs. ..."

BOLD On whether the program promotes religion:

"The program neither promotes religion nor is hostile to it. Rather, it promotes the opportunity for increased learning by those currently having the greatest difficulty with educational achievement."

Moreover, the court found persuasive an opt-out feature permitting children attending parochial schools to opt out of religious instruction if their parents so desire. Freedom of religion. Freedom from religion. Freedom, you might say, all around.

So, after Wisconsin, where lies the nationwide battle for school choice? Rather as Sir Winston Churchill said of the Battle of El Alamein: "It isn't the end; it isn't even the beginning of the end. But it is, I think, the end of the beginning."

It's a breakout. The wall is breached. Look for a flood tide in school choice in days ahead.

~Peter Kinder is assistant to the president of Rust Communications and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.