Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Temporary Injunction Issued Stopping North Carolina School Voucher Program

According to the Lincoln (NC) Times-News, after a hearing last Friday, a North Carolina trial court judge issued a temporary injunction barring the state (at least for the time being) from moving ahead with a lottery to choose families to receive school vouchers for use at private schools next year. The state has received over 4,700 applications for the 2,400 vouchers that would be awarded to income-eligible families. According to the Times-News report:
Friday’s arguments focused on what the state constitution allows and whether the legislature improperly took money away from the state’s public schools to give to private schools. Opponents of the bill have argued that vouchers would send money to schools that discriminate based on religion or disability. 
One school that has come under fire is Raleigh Christian Academy, which requires its students and parents to sign a contract stating they are in 100 percent agreement with its fundamental doctrinal practices. Their school application states, “we are not a church school for those in cults, i.e. Mormons, Jehovah’s Witness, Christian Science, Unification Church, Zen Buddhism, Unitarianism, and United Pentecostal.”
(See prior related posting.)