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State Treasurer Dan Schwartz, whose office was charged with administering ESA accounts — about 8,000 had been opened
through summer — called the ruling a “step in the right direction for Nevada families,” but added a cautionary postscript.
“However, if our office can’t distribute funds to the 8,000 applicants, then all the discussion on ESA’s constitutionality is for
naught.”
Sylvia Lazos, policy director at Educate Nevada Now, which opposed the law, said her organization is grateful the court “agreed
with Nevada parents and the voucher law has been stopped, so critical resources won’t be taken from our already underfunded
public schools.”
Tod Story, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, also hailed the ruling. “It halts the program in its entirety and stops the
state from taking funds earmarked for public education and using them for vouchers that support private and religious schools
that indoctrinate and discriminate,” he said.
Justices weighed two separate constitutional challenges to the program. Lower courts issued conflicting rulings on the law’s
legality based on different constitutional provisions.
Carson City District Judge James Wilson in January issued an injunction, putting the law on hold. Wilson sided with a group of
parents who argued it illegally diverted money from an education account mandated by the constitution to go exclusively to
public education.
In Southern Nevada, Clark County District Judge Eric Johnson in May rejected challenges filed by the American Civil Liberties
Union on behalf of another group of parents who argued the constitution prohibits use of taxpayer money for sectarian purposes.
Many private schools are run by religious organizations.
Johnson agreed with the state, ruling that the program was “neutral with respect to religion” because parents — not the state —
decide how they will use the funding.
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