Judge Smacks Down School Vouchers In North Carolina

Here’s another news story we hardly expected to read: a state superior court judge in North Carolina has not only ruled that the state legislature’s big giveaway of taxpayer money to religious extremists is unconstitutional, but that the state must claw back funds already given away.

In a stunning rebuke to state lawmakers’ efforts to bring school vouchers to North Carolina, Wake County Superior Court Judge Robert Hobgood today found the recently-enacted “Opportunity Scholarship Program” unconstitutional and permanently enjoined disbursement of state funds for that purpose.

“The General Assembly fails the children of North Carolina when they are sent with public taxpayer money to private schools that have no legal obligation to teach them anything,” Hobgood said.

In his ruling, issued this morning from the bench, the judge broke down the program and detailed the many reasons why it failed constitutional muster:

This legislation unconstitutionally

1. appropriates to private schools grades K-12, by use of funds which apparently have gone to the university system budget but which should be used exclusively for establishing and maintaining the uniform system of free public schools;
2. appropriates education funds in a manner that does not accomplish a public purpose;
3. appropriates educational funds outside the supervision and administration of the state board of education;
4. creates a non-uniform system of education;
5. appropriates taxpayer funds to educational institutions that have no standards, curriculum and requirements for teachers and principals to be certified;
6. fails to guard and maintain the rights of the people who privilege the education by siphoning money from the public schools in favor of private schools; and
7. allows funding of non-public schools that discriminate on account of religion.

Hobgood also refused to stay his decision pending an appeal by the state, which is likely to follow soon.

Naturally, the Bible-beating legislators who backed the scam are incensed, and the state’s top enforcer of dominionism… er, law already working to undo the ruling:

N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper, a Democrat who has raised concerns about parts of the Republican legislative agenda, quickly announced plans for his office to appeal, according to Noelle Talley, his spokeswoman.

“Our attorneys believe that this is a constitutional issue that must be decided by the appellate courts,” Talley said in a statement shortly after the ruling.

A diverse group, including teachers, parents, a former state school superintendent and many of North Carolina’s 115 school boards filed a lawsuit in December 2013 questioning the constitutionality of vouchers.

The N.C. Association of Educators and the N.C. Justice Center, a left-leaning advocacy group, filed one lawsuit and the N.C. School Boards Association, which was joined by 71 of the state’s 115 school districts – including Chapel Hill-Carrboro and Chatham, Durham and Orange counties – also sued the state.

[Big hat tip to Crooks and Liars!]

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