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At least three decades of effort in Minnesota to broaden school choice to include religious and other private schools received a boost from a June U.S. Supreme Court decision, Carson v. Makin, when the high court clearly determined: “A state need not subsidize private education but once a state decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious.”

But even that decision — which relied on two other high court rulings over the last five years and involved a high school tuition aid program in Maine that had excluded religious schools — does not remove political hurdles to school choice in Minnesota and some other states, said several lawmakers, legal and education experts. Opposition remains strong in some states to allowing public education dollars to follow the student’s choice of a school, and not simply go toward public schools, they said.

The Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state’s Catholic bishops, is a longtime supporter of legislation that would allow public funding to help students attend any school, public or private, under a range of policies that fall under the umbrella of “school choice” or “parental choice” initiatives.

Income and location should not limit parents from choosing what educational environment is best for their children, said Jason Adkins, MCC executive director and general counsel.

“Children should not be limited (in having) quality educational options because of their zip code or socioeconomic status, and parents should be empowered to select a school that meets their children’s unique needs and the family’s values,” Adkins said. “Public education dollars should follow students, not systems.”

In Minnesota, the statewide teachers’ union Education Minnesota, as well as Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat and former teacher seeking a second term in November, and many members of the Democrat-controlled House oppose extending school choice beyond public school open enrollment, charter and online schools, said Rep. Kristin Robbins, a Republican from Maple Grove who as a lawmaker and former leader of school choice nonprofits has sought to broaden school choice since the late 1990s.

A longstanding state tax deduction that does include private schools can be claimed for elementary and high school tuition and for school expenses such as books and other supplies, but the size of the deduction has not been adjusted since 2001, Robbins said. Efforts to include more families by offering a tax credit for private school tuition have also failed, she said.

In another attempt to broaden school choice, the Republican-majority Minnesota Senate passed legislation last year that would have allowed parents to receive public education dollars and apply the money to private schools through what is called education savings accounts. But that measure failed to gain support in final budget negotiations.

“We’d need veto-proof margins” to pass into law ESAs or other school choice measures, Robbins said. “I think that’s a heavy lift in the House and Senate.”

The November elections will include all seats in the House and Senate, and Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen is a school choice proponent.

Adkins said there is no inherent reason that any issue needs to be partisan.

“But the question speaks to the reality of political parties and their role in our process, which is to develop a coalition of interests that can be used to gain and leverage political power,” Adkins said. Over the years, Minnesota has seen prominent Democrats support school choice, including the late Gov. Rudy Perpich of Hibbing, Adkins said. In the 1980s, Perpich pioneered and helped pass open enrollment laws in Minnesota that permit families to send their children to schools across school district lines.

Public support grows

The political contests are being held as public support for school choice has grown around the country and across a wide spectrum of partisanship and race, as indicated by a national Feb. 5-9 survey of more than 2,000 registered voters cited by Dallas-based American Federation for Children, which advocates for school choice.

Conducted by RealClear Opinion Research, the survey found that 72% of those polled supported school choice, and only 18% opposed it. That marked an 8% increase in support since a similar poll, conducted in April 2020, found 64% support. Support for school choice among Democrats also was strong, and it grew by 9% in those two years, from 59% to 68%, while support among Republicans grew 7% percent, from 75% to 82%. School choice also found favor among independents, with the survey marking a 7% growth in approval since April 2020, from 60% to 67%.

In addition, about 72% of whites surveyed in February supported school choice, 70% of Blacks, 77% of Hispanics and 66% of Asians.

The April 2020 poll was conducted just before COVID-19 pandemic restrictions — including closing school campuses and later implementing mask mandates — began in March 2020. The second poll was conducted after restrictions had eased.

“These poll numbers are stunning,” said Tommy Schultz, CEO of AFC, in a statement. “The past two years have exposed to the world what many in the parental choice movement have known for decades: No single educational environment is right for every child.”

In Minnesota, the two years between those polls included the fall of 2020, when many public schools were slow to re-open to in-person learning, but Catholic school leaders in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis decided students learning together in the classroom could be accomplished with safety measures and was critically important for learning, social development and mental health.

Carson v. Makin

Carson v. Makin, meanwhile, has made it clear that religious schools cannot be excluded when a general public benefit is provided for education, said Thomas Berg, a professor of law and public policy at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis. That fact removes an argument some lawmakers used as they opposed expanding school choice to private, religious schools, Berg said.

“Legislators used to be able to say, ‘I’m against a private school choice program, and it would face these legal problems, so let’s not do it.’ Now, they can’t say the second part,” Berg said.

Still, hurdles remain on policy grounds in Minnesota, Berg said. “There is strong sentiment and strong lobbying for funding only public schools,” he said.

The Minnesota Catholic Conference has partnered and worked with other school choice groups as well, including the statewide advocacy group Opportunities for All Kids and the national, Stillwater-based Catholic Education Partners.

Adkins said Minnesota used to be a leader in education innovation and choice. The state was an early adopter of charter schools, open enrollment, non-public student aid programs, as well as the K-12 tax deduction, he said.

“But we now lag behind other states that have robust parental choice programs, and which allow parents to use education savings accounts, tuition tax credits, or vouchers to attend private schools,” Adkins said. “We need to move to a paradigm where public education dollars follow students and not systems.”

Jason Slattery, director of education in the archdiocese, said that with the boost provided by Carson v. Makin, Minnesota should adopt one of a multitude of avenues to broaden school choice, such as a tax credit to help offset tuition costs of attending a private school, or Arizona’s dollar-for-dollar tax credit for donations to scholarships that help qualifying students attend private schools.

“Unfortunately, here in Minnesota, for most children, their school is determined by their neighborhood and ZIP Code, and those parents really don’t get much of a choice,” Slattery said.

School choice advocates

Shawn Peterson, president of Catholic Education Partners, which works with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, state Catholic conferences and others to advance access to Catholic education, said he led an Aug. 9-12 gathering of leaders in Catholic conferences from around the county to discuss Carson v. Makin and a variety of other education issues.

“There’s a ton of positive energy right now around school choice,” Peterson said. Carson v. Makin eliminates concern about religious schools being in the mix, he said, and “will tell lawmakers who were reluctant to put forward school choice in their state, that they can now feel comfortable in presenting this option.”

Backers of broadening school choice programs to include private and religious schools believe parents should be given options aided by public dollars to choose whatever school setting is best for their children. That group includes Robbins and Sen. Roger Chamberlain of Lino Lakes, a Republican and lead sponsor of the ESA bill that passed the Minnesota Senate in 2021.

“It’s not about directing anyone toward any faith tradition, but parents choosing the school that they think will meet their children’s needs,” Robbins said.

“My driving force,” Chamberlain said, “is simply one thing: to provide the best educational opportunities for all kids no matter where they are from or who they are.”

Government mandates that might be attached to a school choice program could be a legitimate concern, but thus far that has not been an issue around the country, Adkins said. If burdensome mandates were put in place, private schools could decide not to participate, he said.

“What mandates do is limit school participation at the outset,” he said. “And that limits real parental choice, which is why we try to keep them out as much as possible and will oppose any choice legislation that includes burdensome mandates or would limit Catholic school participation.”

Adkins cautioned against letting such concerns get in the way of school choice progress. “No one concerned about Catholic education or the well-being of students should sit on the sidelines of the school choice debate because they are hung up on issues related to mandates,” he said. “The key is to be at the table so that you are not on the menu.”

Mitch Pearlstein, who worked in the U.S. Department of Education in Washington in the late 1980s, then in 1990 founded and about two years ago retired from Golden Valley-based think tank Center of the American Experiment, said parents should be given opportunities to make the best educational choices possible for their families.

He is Jewish and his wife, Diane McGowan, is a deacon in the Episcopal Church. She underwent a difficult divorce while raising three teenage boys, and they have seen the difference a Catholic education in particular made in their children’s lives, Pearlstein said.

“For many kids, who have holes in their heart where their daddy should be, where their mommy should be —sometimes both — need more nourishing, and for many it helps,” Pearlstein said. “I want kids to have that opportunity.”

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