In Pennsylvania shcool vouchers is a hot topic. But after reading the state constitution I do not see how a school voucher system can be legal.
In ARTICLE III SECTION 15 it states “No money raised for the support of public schools of the Commonwealth shall be appropriated to or used for the support of any sectarian school.”
And in ARTICLE III SECTION 30 it states “No appropriation shall be made to any charitable or educational institution not under the absolute control of the Commonwealth, other than normal schools established by law for the professional training of teachers for the public schools of the State, execpt by a vote of two thirds of all the members elected to each House.”
So this seems like a non issue yet all of the politicians keep talking about it.
It’s a hot topic because the state constitution is changable with enough votes. Ostensibly they’re actually looking for votes to do just that, not just to pass a school voucher bill, since, as you said, such a bill would be, under the current laws of the constitution, invalid.
over here in Michi-gander land. We’ve got similar language in OUR state’s constitution, but Proposal One this fall is to change that language.
Since a similar proposal went down soundly years ago, they’ve learned this time (and be prepared for it in Penn) that in order to win over the number of voters necessary to change the constitution, you have to hide the issue. So proposal One calls for: ** Teacher Testing!, School Accountability!** and [sub] public funding for private schools [/sub] and did we mention ** Teacher testing!**