Voucher programs allow students to take a portion of funds reserved for public education to put toward private education. The major supporters of school vouchers are poor parents, and the Catholic Church. Before 1999, the Catholic Church had been one of the chief enemies of all federal grants for education. Then the Hierarchy gradually changed direction, and it decided

For the past 50 years the Supreme Court has held up the "wall of separation" in such high profile cases as the Nyquist decision in 1973, which invalidated a New York State program that provided tuition reimbursements to poor parents whose children attended private schools. Although the court found that New York had attempted to ensure the secular effect by making the payments directly to the parents, it ruled that the program had a primary function of advancing religion, and there for was unconstitutional. This ruling affirmed Justice Black's decision in making publicly funded school vouchers unconstitutional.

Leading the charge against publicly funded school vouchers is the American Teachers Union, American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association, as well as The National Council of Churches and many constitutionalists. Opponents of school vouchers believe that while vouchers might seem like a good idea on the surface, a deeper investigation reveals its fatal flaws and irreversible social implications. The biggest argument against vouchers is that they are unconstitutional. It has been decide that according to the establishment clause of the 1st amendment giving any funds to private school that promote religion is against the law. Vouchers also have the ability to hurt the majority of students in public schools by taking away their funding. According to expert on the subject of school vouchers, Henry Levin, "not only are vouchers unconstitutional but they completely undermine the public education system, thus threatening our system of democracy."

Many proponents of vouchers do not want to eliminate the public school system; they want to use

Some proponents of vouchers see the public school system as promoting atheist views and denying the freedom to practice a religion other that atheism. School vouchers would allow parents to send their children to religious schools and allow them to assert the right to practice the religion of their choice. Cavailer Daily, a scholar and leader in the voucher movement states, "Freedom of Religion should allow students to attend a parochial school, rather than prevent them." Vouchers allow choice for all people not only the ones wealthy enough to afford a religions education. The current system has allowed students "to be rigorously secularized" striking down "most forms of public assistance to parents who desire to protect their children from an educational system that is often actively promoting values that are profoundly at odds with religious convictions. The net result has been that a crucial aspect of religious freedom is exercised only by families wealthy enough to afford private education after paying taxes for public schools." Mary Ann Glendon, a constitutional scholar and professor at Harvard University.

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Approximate Word count = 2336
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)