Wolman v. Walter
Headline: State school aid split: Court upheld textbooks, testing, and certain services but struck down equipment loans and field-trip funding, affecting mostly sectarian and Catholic nonpublic school students in Ohio.
Holding: The Court ruled that Ohio may provide secular textbooks, standardized testing, diagnostic, and off-premises therapeutic services to nonpublic pupils, but that loans of instructional materials and equipment and funding for field-trip transportation are unconstitutional.
- Allows Ohio to provide secular textbooks, tests, and diagnostic services to nonpublic pupils.
- Blocks state-funded instructional equipment loans and school field-trip transportation for nonpublic schools.
- Requires services to be provided neutrally off nonpublic premises to avoid religious entanglement.
Summary
Background
Ohio adopted a law (3317.06) to provide various supports to children in nonpublic schools: secular textbooks, instructional materials and equipment, standardized testing and scoring, diagnostic services, therapeutic and remedial services, and field-trip transportation. The Legislature set an initial two-year appropriation of $88,800,000. The challengers are Ohio citizens and taxpayers; the defendants are state education and fiscal officials and representative potential beneficiaries. The parties stipulated that of 720 nonpublic schools then chartered in Ohio all but 29 were sectarian and that over 92% of nonpublic pupils attended Catholic schools. Schools taught required secular subjects and typically added about one-half hour of religious instruction daily.
Reasoning
The Court applied the three-part test from prior decisions (purpose, primary effect, excessive entanglement). It accepted Ohio’s secular purpose but examined effect and entanglement for each program. The Court held the textbook loan provision constitutional (relying on past textbook precedents), upheld provision of standardized tests and scoring, and upheld on-site diagnostic services and off-premises therapeutic/remedial services when provided neutrally by public employees or in public centers or mobile units. In contrast, the Court found that loans of instructional materials and equipment (even if channeled through parents or pupils) in substance advanced sectarian education and therefore were unconstitutional; it also found state funding of field trips impermissible because trips are integral to classroom education and risk fostering religion.
Real world impact
As a result, Ohio may supply secular textbooks, standardized tests, diagnostic services, and certain therapeutic or remedial programs under neutral, off-premises conditions, but it cannot loan instructional equipment/materials or fund field-trip transportation for nonpublic schools. The district court judgment was affirmed in part and reversed in part.
Dissents or concurrances
Justices split: the Chief Justice and Justices White and Rehnquist disagreed with invalidating equipment and field trips. Justice Brennan, Justice Marshall, and Justice Stevens each wrote separately, urging broader or different limits based on their readings of precedent and concerns about state aid to sectarian schools.
Opinions in this case:
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