The Supreme Court ruled in June that Maine violated the First Amendment by
exempting religious school from tuition assistance program

Vermont's top education official has informed school districts in the
state that they cannot withhold public tuition money to religious schools,
citing a recent Supreme Court case.

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In a 6-3 decision that came down on ideological lines in June, the Supreme
Court ruled in Carson v. Makin that the state of Maine had violated the
free exercise of religion clause in the First Amendment for religious
schools by exempting them from their tuition assistance program.

One of the court's liberal justices, Justice Sotomayor, blasted it as
"dismantling" the separation of church and state. Chief Justice John
Roberts, meanwhile, accused the state of discriminating against religion.

"There is nothing neutral about Maine�s program," Roberts wrote. "The
State pays tuition for certain students at private schools � so long as
the schools are not religious. That is discrimination against religion."

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"In light of the U.S. Supreme Court�s decision in Carson v. Makin, we are
writing to advise you of the following: School districts may not deny
tuition payments to religious approved independent schools or religious
independent schools that meet educational quality standards based on the
Vermont Constitution�s Compelled Support Clause, Vermont Constitution
Chapter I, Article 3," Dan French, Vermont�s secretary of education, told
school superintendents in a letter on Tuesday.

"Requests for tuition payments for resident students to approved
independent religious schools or religious independent schools that meet
educational quality standards must be treated the same as requests for
tuition payments to secular approved independent schools or secular
independent schools that meet educational quality standards," he
continued.

Perhaps sensing critics would cite the provision, French preemptively
noted in the letter that public school districts could not withhold
tuition funds to religious schools based on Vermont's "compelled support
clause," which prohibits Vermonters from being forced to support a
religion that they do not practice or that is "contrary to the dictates of
conscience."

Peter Teachout, a constitutional law professor at Vermont Law School, said
the education agency's decision violated the provision.

"I don�t know who is responsible for providing the (Agency of Education)
with legal and constitutional advice, but I think that advising local
school districts to violate a key provision in the Vermont constitution
without at least exploring whether that is required by the Supreme Court
decision in the Carson case, and without exploring options available for
complying with both that decision and with the Vermont constitution, is
deeply problematical," Teachout said in an email to the outlet VTDigger.

The Vermont Agency of Education explained in a statement to Fox News
Digital that the settlements of the cases A.H. v. French and E.W. v.
French paved the way for the announcement. The latter case involved two
high school students, their parents, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of
Burlington who filed a federal lawsuit against Vermont officials for
discriminating against students and denying them a tuition benefit because
they attend a religious high school.

"The U.S. Supreme Court�s decision in Carson v. Makin over the summer, led
parties in Vermont�s cases, A.H. v. French and E.W. v. French, to reach
settlement," Suzanne Sprague, a spokesperson for the Vermont Agency of
Education, told Fox News Digital. "This allows tuition paying school
districts to move forward with clarity, understanding that they must pay
tuition to all approved independent schools regardless of religious
affiliation."

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Vermont educators predicted the Court case will have a "significant"
impact on the state's education.

"�Significant� is an understatement," Jared Carter, a professor at Vermont
Law School, said.

Many towns in Vermont are not large enough to operate their own public
schools, so the state offers families public money to send their children
to public and private schools elsewhere.

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cannot-withhold-public-tuition-money-religious-schools