What principles apply to school choice and religious schools?
Religious traditions universally value education and have built extensive religious educational institutions across history. The Constitution's Establishment Clause prohibits government establishment of religion; its Free Exercise Clause prohibits discrimination against religion. Recent Supreme Court decisions (Trinity Lutheran, Espinoza, Carson) have shifted the balance toward treating religious schools as eligible for any neutral benefit program. The contemporary debate is about how to balance these — and about whether the school-choice expansion strengthens American education or weakens shared public schooling. The constitutional principles are real on both sides; reasonable people disagree about specific applications.
Religious perspectives
Religious traditions value education highly — and most have built their own educational institutions throughout history, treating education as a religious obligation.
Judaism: "Teach them diligently to your children" (Deuteronomy 6:7). Education has been central to Jewish life since the establishment of communal schools in the 1st century CE — among the first universal-education systems in human history. Jewish day schools, yeshivas, and Hebrew schools represent millennia of religious education.
Christianity: "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6). The Christian tradition built the European university system (Oxford, Cambridge, Bologna, Paris), the U.S. parochial school system, the Sunday school movement, and many of the historically Black colleges and universities. Education is treated as integral to formation in faith.
Islam: "Seeking knowledge is an obligation upon every Muslim" (Hadith). The first words revealed to the Prophet Muhammad were "Read" (Iqra). Islamic civilization built the first universities (Al-Qarawiyyin, Al-Azhar). Madrasas continue this tradition globally.
Buddhism and Hinduism: Both traditions have extensive histories of religious schools — Buddhist monastery schools across Asia, Hindu gurukula education systems.
The genuine religious debate: Religious communities are divided about whether religious education should occur in dedicated religious schools (which builds community identity but can isolate from broader society), in religious supplements to public school (which integrates but limits religious formation time), or through some combination. The school-choice debate intersects with this: religious schools argue they provide irreplaceable formation; public school advocates argue universal public education builds shared citizenship across religious differences.
Constitutional & legal framework
The constitutional framework for school choice involves the interaction of the Establishment Clause (which prohibits government establishment of religion) and the Free Exercise Clause (which prohibits discrimination against religion) — and recent Supreme Court rulings have shifted the balance.
The two clauses in tension:
- Establishment Clause: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." Historically read to limit public funding flowing to religious schools.
- Free Exercise Clause: "...or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Increasingly read to prohibit excluding religious institutions from neutral benefit programs.
The doctrinal arc:
- Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971): Established the "Lemon test" for Establishment Clause violations — government action must have a secular purpose, not advance or inhibit religion, and not foster excessive government entanglement with religion. Largely overruled in practice in recent terms.
- Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002): Upheld Cleveland's school voucher program that included religious schools, finding the program neutral and the choice belonging to parents.
- Trinity Lutheran v. Comer (2017): Held Missouri could not exclude a church from a neutral playground-resurfacing grant program based on its religious status.
- Espinoza v. Montana (2020): Held that if a state creates a tax-credit scholarship program, it cannot exclude religious schools from participation.
- Carson v. Makin (2022): Held that Maine's "tuitioning" program (paying private school tuition for students in towns without public high schools) could not exclude religious schools.
The 2025-2026 expansion: The first federal school voucher program became law in July 2025, creating tax-credit scholarships that route public dollars to private and religious schools. Multiple states have enacted Education Savings Account programs allowing public funds to follow students to private schools (Arizona, West Virginia, Iowa, Utah, others).
The contemporary tension: Recent doctrine has shifted toward treating exclusion of religious schools from neutral benefit programs as discrimination. This effectively requires that public funds flow to religious schools when the broader program funds private schools — a substantial departure from mid-20th-century separationist doctrine.
What's at stake: Religious-school advocates argue the doctrine restores equal treatment for religious institutions. Critics argue the doctrine effectively requires public funding of religious education that taxpayers may not share, and weakens public schools by diverting resources.
Sources cited:BibleQuranBuddhismConstitutionSupreme Court