Aid to Parochial Schools

School

The issue of whether the government may extend aid to parochial schools, and how much aid should be permitted, has been debated for decades. The Supreme Court has set a rule that aid to schools is acceptable, if it helps the students and not the school..

.

.

Determining what aid states and cities could provide schools has always been a difficult issue for the Supreme Court to determine. In the case of Everson vs Board of Education in 1947(otherwise known as the New Jersey School Bus Case), the Court upheld the right of the local government to pay for the busing of children, stating that such action benefits the students, and not the school. It also held, in the case of Board of Education v Allen in 1968, that the state may provide secular textbooks for parochial schools. The Court, however, ruled in 1971 that a Rhode Island law providing for the state to supplement the pay of parochial school students ... It has further ruled it admissible for the state to help cover a school's costs of administering standardized tests, while finding that the state may not reimburse states for the ... In its ruling, the Court stated that, by helping fund the payment of teachers, the state was becoming too involved. In more recent decisions, the Court has ruled that the state of Arizona could provide a deaf interpreter for a parochial school. In a New York decision, the court held that a special court district could not be set up for a group of Jewish Hasidim students who needed special education.