In Jordan v. Rea, (AZ Ct. App., May 28, 2009), an Arizona appellate court held, in a dispute between divorced parents over where their two children would go to school, that the best-interests standard applies and that a court may not rule out a private religious school simply because it is a private religious school. This overturned the trial court's ruling that while both parents can impart religious training to the children, school "is a theologically neutral time."
The appellate court also rejected the father's argument that ordering him to pay for a private religious school would be unconstitutional because it would require him to financially support a religious institution to which he does not subscribe. The court concluded that the father is not being required to support a religious institution, but instead is merely being required to make a child support payment to his former spouse to provide for his children's education in a school the court has found to be in their best interests. Yesterday's Douglas (AZ) Dispatch reports on the decision.
