Heartland Institute Experts React to
Indiana Supreme Court Upholding School Vouchers
The Indiana Supreme Court today ruled unanimously that the state’s school voucher program is constitutional, a defeat for the legal challenge brought by teachers unions against the program.
The following statements from education and legal experts at The Heartland Institute – a free-market think tank – may be used for attribution. For more comments, refer to the contact information below. To book a Heartland guest on your program, please contact Director of Communications Jim Lakely at [email protected] and 312/377-4000 or (cell) 312/731-9364.
“It is impossible to educate without discussing and applying morals and values. (Ever tried to mediate a fight between two kids?) That is why the belief that public schools can impartially broker competing ideas about morality without imposing their own version of it is ridiculous and false.
“Indiana’s Supreme Court has recognized, and unanimously, the same thing the U.S. Supreme Court did in 2002: Parents have a right to choose which ethical code will permeate their children’s educations. When the state allows them this choice, rather than confining children to only the moral education public schools promote, it is ending its preference for one religion over another. That’s why people like me, who want separation of church and state and freedom of religion, hail this ruling.”
Joy Pullmann
Research Fellow, The Heartland Institute
Managing Editor, School Reform News
[email protected]
312/377-4000
“The argument that vouchers amount to establishment of religion has been knocked down in state after state and in the U.S. Supreme Court. Yet teachers unions and their allies persist in suing to stop these programs that give children an opportunity at a better education and a way out of poverty. I wonder how many taxpayers and, especially, parents of public school children know that their teachers unions are fighting tooth and nail to keep their children in disastrously bad schools.”
S.T. Karnick
Director of Research
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000
“In this season of March Madness, Hoosier families seeking freedom to choose the best schools for their children earned a victory even sweeter than any glorious basketball victory with the Indiana State Supreme Court’s unanimous affirmation of public vouchers for private choice. Families across the nation also have good reason to cheer now that both the U.S. Supreme Court and a state court judging the broadest of the states’ voucher programs have ruled that parental choice in K-12 education merits the approbation of a game-winning three-pointer from ‘downtown.'”
Robert G. Holland
Senior Fellow, Education
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000
The Heartland Institute is a 29-year-old national nonprofit organization headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site or call 312/377-4000.
Joy Pullmann is a research fellow on education policy for The Heartland Institute and managing editor of The Federalist, a web magazine on politics, policy, and culture.
S. T. Karnick is a senior fellow and director of publications for The Heartland Institute.
Robert Holland, a journalist and author who has championed school choice throughout his career, is a Heartland Institute Senior Fellow addressing education policy.
