Using precedents established by the U.S. Supreme Court in First Amendment rulings, the Institute for Justice’s Clint Bolick offers three rules of thumb for designing a legally sound school choice program.
Rule #1: No public funds should be transmitted to religious schools except at the direction of third parties.
Rule #2: The program should extend benefits to a neutrally defined class of beneficiaries and create no financial incentive to choose private or religious schools.
Rule #3: The program should not impose regulations beyond those necessary to ensure that the government’s educational objectives are accomplished.
