ADVISORY: CO Supreme Court to Hear School Voucher Challenge

December 8, 2014
DENVER – Attorneys for the ACLU of Colorado and Taxpayers for Public Education will argue before the Colorado State Supreme Court this Wednesday that the Court should strike down a Douglas County voucher program that provides public education funds to private religious schools.
Douglas County’s so-called “Choice Scholarship Pilot Program” offered tuition vouchers worth $4,575 to 500 students to spend at religious and other private schools. For the purposes of obtaining the state per-pupil educational funds, Douglas County created a public charter school, which exists only on paper, and enrolled students in the non-existent charter school.  In reality, students were set to attend one of 23 district-approved “Private School Partners,” and the voucher money would be paid to the schools. As of the filing of the lawsuit, 18 of the 23 approved Private School Partners were religious schools.
ACLU cooperating attorney Matthew Douglas of Arnold Porter LLP will argue that the voucher plan violates the Colorado Constitution’s ban on the use of public funds for religious schools.  Michael McCarthy of Faegre Baker Daniels LLP, representing Taxpayers for Public Education, will argue that the Colorado Public School Finance Act forbids using public funds to subsidize tuition payments for students who are attending private schools.
Details:

WHERE: Colorado State Supreme Court 2 East 14th Avenue Denver, CO 80203
WHEN: Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2015 1:30 pm MT
Resources:

Visit the ACLU case page with corresponding legal documents: https://aclu-co.org/court-cases/la-rue-v-colorado-board-of-education/

View: Civil Liberties Groups Ask Colorado Supreme Court to Strike Down Douglas County Voucher Program.