Parents for Public Schools, Inc. (PPS) believes that the recent Supreme Court decision in Carson v. Makin to give public funds to private religious schools doesn’t just crack the constitutional wall separating church and state, it punches a hole through which untold amounts of public tax dollars may flow drastically changing public education in America as we know it.
In addition to being unconstitutional, the Supreme Court’s decision rewards poor state leadership and fails to hold the state accountable for its constitutional duty to provide public education to all school-age children in the state.
If Chief Justice John Roberts could make recommendations as to how to provide access to public schools, surely state leaders could have done the same. By its decision, the Court appears to agree that a state has no obligation to provide a system of public schools that educate all of its children equally and equitably. We fear that this decision provides a rationale for continued privatization of public education in the United States.
There is nothing in this decision that is constitutional or that reflects American values.