PFAWF: More Than 99 Percent Of Cleveland Voucher Students Attend Religious Schools; Data Highlights Constitutional Issues

1/23/2002

From: Melissa Dorfman or Jason Young, 202-467-4999, both for People for the American Way Foundation

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 -- The following was released today by People For the American Way Foundation:

Despite claims that the Cleveland voucher program provides a choice between religious and nonsectarian private schools, nearly 100 percent of Cleveland voucher students attend private religious schools, a new report shows. Data released today by Policy Matters Ohio, a Cleveland-based research institute, shows that 99.4 percent, or all but 25 out of the city's 4200 voucher students attend religious schools. Moreover, the number of nonreligious schools participating in the Cleveland program has dwindled from 11 to only 3.

This new data goes right to the heart of a key issue in the Cleveland voucher case, Simmons-Harris v. Zelman, that the Supreme Court will hear on Feb. 20, 2002. The high court will review a decision by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision finding that the Cleveland school voucher program is unconstitutional because it violates church-state separation. The Court ruled that parents' choices are limited largely to religious schools, with the effect that Ohio taxpayers are, in effect, subsidizing religion.

There is no 'opt-out' provision for voucher students attending religious schools in Cleveland, meaning that they must participate in any religious worship or activities required at those schools. This requirement, coupled with the fact that only three secular private schools are currently participating in the Cleveland voucher program, makes it clear that the only real choice is to get a religious education at a religious school.

Other facts, such as the underrepresentation of minority students (only 53 percent of voucher students are African American versus 71 percent of Cleveland's public school students) and the fact that many vouchers go to those with a higher income (fully 22 percent of vouchers go to students in families with incomes more than 200 percent above the poverty line including incomes up to $90,000) in the program, along with the recent finding that many poor African Americans live in neighborhoods with no nearby voucher school, demonstrates that the voucher program offers no real choice for Cleveland's poor families, its supposed beneficiaries.

Other information about the program, including details on its impact on religious liberty, can be found in a report released recently by People For the American Way Foundation, Five Years and Counting: A Closer Look at the Cleveland Voucher Program. The report cites the empty promises of the Cleveland voucher program, showing how the program fails to benefit poor students. Five Years and Counting can be found on PFAWF's Web site: http://www.pfaw.org/issues/education/cleveland-9-21.pdf.