West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is leading a coalition of eight states in an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court supporting a group of parents who are challenging Michigan’s Blaine Amendment, which prohibits nonpublic elementary and secondary schools from receiving public aid.
Named after James G. Blaine, a 19th century politician from Maine, Blaine Amendments are amendments to state constitutions and are intended to prevent the use of public funds to support parochial schools, specifically, Catholic schools. Since it was passed in 1970, the current Michigan Blaine amendment has prevented families from accessing schooling options of their choice. Low-income families have been particularly impacted by this amendment.
The families who are challenging the amendment have saved money in a tax-exempt 529 plan and want to use those funds to cover the cost of private school tuition. The amendment prevents any public funds to benefit nonpublic schools, even funds from education savings accounts.
“This case is a prime example of government overreach,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “These families have worked hard and saved money to give their kids the best educational opportunities they can, and now the state says they can’t because the schools they have chosen happen to be private or may be associated with a religious entity. But programs like West Virginia’s Hope Scholarship program prove that more school choice is better.”
Parents have been exploring alternatives to public schools in recent years. Those efforts ramped up during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Homeschool, charter schools, and private schools have become more attractive to parents for a variety of reasons.
“Michigan’s Blaine Amendment is problematic for several reasons. First, it violates the U.S. Constitution’s Free Exercise Clause in the First Amendment and Equal Protection Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “Second, the state is standing in the way of parents when it comes to their choice of school for their children and that’s just wrong.”
Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, South Dakota and Utah joined the West Virginia-led brief.
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