Great news!
The Montana Supreme Court declared a law unconstitutional that was intended to offer tuition tax credits (aka vouchers) for private schools.
“The justices ruled 5-2 that the program giving tax credits of up to $150 for donations to organizations that give scholarships to private-school students amounts to indirect aid to schools controlled by churches. There is a ban in the Montana Constitution on any direct or indirect state aid to such schools, regardless of how large or small the amount is, the opinion by Justice Laurie McKinnon said.
“The Legislature’s enactment of the Tax Credit Program is facially unconstitutional and violates Montana’s constitutional guarantees to all Montanans that their government will not use state funds to aid religious schools,” McKinnon wrote.”
Read more here: https://www.thestate.com/news/business/national-business/article223011635.html#storylink=cpy
Also, in another Montana newspaper:
“Montana’s high court on Wednesday struck down the state’s tax credit for school scholarships because it primarily benefited religious schools, running afoul of Montana’s Constitution.
“The state program allowed donors who contributed to scholarship funds for students to reduce their state taxes by $1 for every $1 they gave to the fund.
“The Montana Department of Revenue had excluded religious programs from participating in the tax credit program because it allowed religious schools to benefit from public dollars.
“But parents of students at a religious private school in Flathead County had challenged the department’s decision, arguing the ban was discriminatory.
“In Wednesday’s opinion, Justice Laurie McKinnon said the program, enacted by the 2015 Legislature, was a violation of the Montana Constitution’s ban on aid to religious schools.
“The court’s majority said it doesn’t matter that the money benefiting religious schools does not come directly from state coffers because the constitutional article at hand prohibits indirect payments, in this case dollar-for-dollar tax breaks.
“Here, the taxpayer ‘donates’ nothing, because for every dollar the taxpayer diverts to the (school), the taxpayer receives one dollar in consideration from the State in the form of a lower tax bill,” the opinion states.”
Ninety percent of the private schools that signed up for the program were religious.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What the religious schools don’t understand is that if they receive money/funds etc, it is not free. There is ALWAYS a string attached even if it is a tax credit. Boy, these parents would be complaining like heck, when the government started demanding accountability for the money….standardized testing, common core, data collection, SEL. These are the reasons why parents “choose and pay” to put their children into private education. These parents can’t have it both ways.
You really have to read ed reformers to see how completely they exclude public schools:
“On this week’s podcast, Lindsey Rust, National Director of Implementation for the American Federation of Children, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss whether private schools serve as oases in charter school deserts”
In the echo chamber, there are only two types of schools- charter and private schools.
They literally refer to areas without their preferred schools as “deserts”- as in, “no schools exist”.
They disappeared the schools 90% of children attend. It’s probably higher than that in Montana! It’s probably 95%.
If you’re wondering why public schools get zero support or attention in some state legislatures and the federal government, all you have to do is look at “the movement” that captured some state legislatures and the federal government.
People who do their best to pretend our schools don’t exist, and work to make that a reality!
The Ohio legislature is currently working on their umpteenth attempt to regulate charter schools. It’s all they do: charters and vouchers. They contribute absolutely nothing of value to the schools 90% of kids in this state attend.
It’s funny because mike Petrilli sends his own kids to excellent public schools in suburban Maryland. He knows the teachers don’t suck.
I hope Montana rejects any version of tax credit scholarships that give the wealthy a tax credit so that the working people can pay extra tax to work around illegal vouchers. You know the minions that tried the voucher scam will try “scholarships” to sub par schools next.
Is the only reason they ruled this way due to the ability to prove that the schools were of a religious nature? I can see private schools going around that by dis-association with religious organizations.
Most state constitutions ban public money going to religious institutions. Some red states have high courts that have decided the state constitution doesn’t mean what it plainly says. Such as, Indiana and Nevada and Florida. They say the public money goes to the family, which is free to pay for religious education. The Montana court read the state constitution.
Excellent comment, Diane. As a native Hoosier teacher I have nothing but disgust for Indiana’s supreme court and for the voucher crime inflicted on the state by Daniels and Pence. Montana’s constitutional sections on this matter are spot-on.
Montana is correct. NO money from the public money should ever go to religious anything. They have tax free status, let them pay their own way on everything.
A good reminder.
“They have tax free status.”
This is also a striking reminder that freedom from taxation is on the wish list of fans of so-called “free-markets.”
In theory everyone is supposed to “pay to play” for almost everything. The national defense is a noteworthy “common good” for which we should be taxed.
But if you can double dip–be tax free and also tax subsidized–so much the better. You are now profiting from and contributing to a profit-based economy, and with an aura of religious purpose attached to that.
Some time ago I wrote about free markets in education. I included this bizarre quote from a true-free market thinker,
Myron Lieberman, who advocated for the total replacement of public schools with profit-centered schools, said: “Private schools of the future may foster some of the moral values associated with a religious point of view. This would seem especially likely if government schools are replaced by schools for profit.” Lieberman, M. (1994). Introduction. In E.G. West, Education and the state: A study in political economy, Third edition.( First edition, 1965 Indianapolis: Liberty Fund. (p. xix).
Myron Lieberman was an academic and long-time champion of school choice, merit pay, union busting and the rest. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15582159.2014.907709?journalCode=wjsc20
In retrospect, I see that this ultra right-wing think tank publication, and the many activities of the Liberty Fund, are located in Indianapolis…Pence-land.