School Choice in the Wake of Two State Supreme Court Rulings (Guest: Lennie Jarratt)

On December 13, the Montana Supreme Court ruled in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue that the state’s tax-credit scholarship is unconstitutional. The next day, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled in Moses v. Ruszkowski that students attending religiously-affiliated schools cannot be denied state-approved education materials. Both cases center around states’ Blaine Amendments, an archaic mechanism used by states to prevent religious organizations from participating in government programs.

Lennie Jarratt, project manager for the Center for Transforming Education at the Heartland Institute, talks about these cases.  Jarratt speaks on the restraints to education choice brought on by states’ Blaine Amendments and discusses the need for school choice right now due to increasing threats and bullying in public schools. Lennie also talks about Heartland’s recent Policy Brief Protecting Students with Child Safety Accounts and how these can offer relief to students facing bullying, threats, or violence in their schools. For more information on education choices, please visit Heartland’s Center for Transforming Education or follow on Twitter at @SchoolReform or Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Heartlandeducation/. You can contact Lennie at [email protected].