Vermont backs down on religion-free school choice after SCOTUS knocks down Maine policy

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Just the News

Families denied funding for religious schools will be reimbursed for tuition paid out of pocket under settlements. State also agrees to pay their legal fees.

 

 

Vermont families that want to send their children to religious schools will no longer be excluded from the state's tuition benefit program, as a result of legal settlements in two cases brought by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

 

The plaintiffs who were denied funding under the Town Tuition Program, which provides tuition for students who live in areas without local public schools, will get reimbursement for money spent out of pocket on tuition. Other families denied funding can apply as well.

"Some families could be looking at multiple years' worth of tuition if they made a request," ADF spokesperson Jacqueline Ribeiro told Just the News.

The writing was on the wall for the Green Mountain State after the Supreme Court invalidated a similar Maine policy that limited tuition assistance to "nonsectarian" schools, with Justice Neil Gorsuch speculating it favored schools with "watered down" religious beliefs.