INDIANAPOLIS — An attorney for the state’s largest teachers’ union told the Indiana Supreme Court on Wednesday that the state’s private school voucher program is unconstitutional because it uses taxpayer money to fund religious activities.

Indiana’s school choice scholarships — more commonly known as vouchers — passed the General Assembly during the 2011 session. Soon after, the Indiana State Teachers Association filed suit against the state to stop the law from taking effect.

A Marion County superior court judge ruled in favor of the voucher law in January. ISTA appealed, and the state’s highest court took the case.

The central question for the court is whether the benefits from vouchers directly or incidentally benefit some religious-based schools.

ISTA says the vouchers directly underwrite religious-based teaching.

“You have a system set up by the state where a parent can send their children to private and parochial schools, and it is not something where they can do whatever they want with the money. They don’t even get the money,” said John West, attorney for ISTA. “But (students) are not entitled to scholarships unless they are using them for a private school, of which the vast majority are religious.”

The program — the broadest in the nation — allows low- to moderate-income families to obtain state-funded vouchers to pay for up to 90 percent of private school tuition.

In its first year, nearly 4,000 students participated. This year, 9,324 families signed up.

West said the public school program differs from state’s current college aid program, which can be used at religious-based schools, because higher education is less about religious indoctrination.

But Indiana Solicitor General Thomas Fisher, who represented the state attorney general, said the voucher program is about educational choice, not religion. “I think where the court is best capable of drawing a bright line, is direct, institutional aid versus parental and state choice, which is what we have here,” he said.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett, who pushed for vouchers but lost his office in the election this month, said that he originally intended the voucher system to only to help children, not benefit religious schools.

“In my advocacy for this legislation, I never once gave any consideration to who this benefited other than the children who are going to pursue an educational opportunity that meets their needs,” Bennett said. “I have never viewed this to try to benefit private schools, to try to hurt public schools. This is about helping children.”

The court is expected to rule at a later date.

Tim Grimes is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

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