PHOENIX — The Arizona Supreme Court should reject the demands of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit seeking to prevent special needs children from using vouchers at private religious schools, say attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund in a friend-of-the-court brief filed in the case, which the court heard Tuesday. ADF attorneys joined attorneys from the law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe in submitting the brief on behalf of a Christian school.
“Special needs students at Christian schools shouldn’t be penalized for their beliefs,” said ADF Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco. “In its mission to eliminate any trace of religion from the public square, the ACLU will even attempt to keep disabled students from receiving the best possible education.”
“The two voucher programs at issue are not unconstitutional,” explained Orrick attorney Raymond Mullady, who co-wrote the brief. “Any tuition that goes to a religious school is through the choice of the parent and for the benefit of the child. It is not ‘state support’ of that school.”
John and Dina Phipps and Brendan and Susan Fay, founders of Father’s Heart Christian School for the disabled, removed their developmentally and physically challenged children from the Arizona public school system because of the inadequate education they received there. On behalf of Cave Creek Unified School District board member Virgel Cain, the ACLU filed suit against Arizona State Superintendant of Public Instruction Tom Horne, challenging the constitutionality of the parents’ vouchers granted by the Arizona Scholarships for Pupils with Disabilities program.
Two students suffering from autism and another with learning and physical challenges received the customized instruction they needed at Father’s Heart. Their behavior and participation improved remarkably and their academic performance rose several grade levels in just one year after leaving the government school system.
The ACLU erroneously argues that such use of state voucher programs is in violation of the state constitution, asserting that the vouchers amount to aid that is equivalent to the direct funding received by public schools.
“All the voucher program funds used at the school go entirely to the children, for teachers, classrooms, materials, books, and special assistive technology. The school does not pay its administrative staff, who work as volunteers,” the friend-of-the-court brief explains. “The Arizona voucher programs for children with special needs and foster children do not directly aid private or religious schools, thus they do not violate Arizona’s religion clauses.”
A copy of the friend-of-the-court brief filed Dec. 1 in the lawsuit Cain v. Horne with the Arizona Supreme Court is available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/HorneAmicus.pdf.
ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family. ADF President Alan Sears is co-author with Craig Osten of the book The ACLU vs. America (www.acluvsamerica.com).
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