Trump's education pick says reform can 'advance God's Kingdom'

[etherealtruth]

8. Mercifully Michigan does not have vouchers

(despite DeVos)

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/charterschoice/2017/01/why_michigan_doesnt_have_school_vouchers_and_probably_never_will.html?print=1


The DeVoses have been influential advocates and philanthropic supporters of school choice policies in their home state and beyond—helping launch and shape Michigan's charter school sector over the last two decades. But the DeVoses are also big proponents of school vouchers, which allow students to use public money to attend a private school.

So if the DeVoses have been so successful in influencing charter school policy in the state, why doesn't Michigan have a single voucher program? The answer has to do with something in the state's constitution called a Blaine Amendment.

Named for James G. Blaine, a U.S. representative from Maine who served in the House in the late 1800s, Blaine Amendments appear in 37 state constitutions, and they ban states from sending public money to private or religious institutions. Michigan's Blaine Amendment is the most restrictive in the country.

"This is a very specific Blaine Amendment to stop funds going to private schools," said Robert Enlow, the president and CEO of EdChoice. "Most other Blaine Amendments don't typically ... mention mechanisms like vouchers." Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that school vouchers did not violate the U.S. Constitution's establishment clause (because states don't choose which private schools to send the money to, parents do), Blaine Amendments in state constitutions, like Michigan's, have acted as a bulwark slowing the spread of vouchers.