Religious School Choice: Exploring the Extent to Which Choice Programs Prop Up Religious Education

• In Event: Innovations and Challenges in School Choice and Educational Equity: A Global Perspective

Abstract

As voucher and voucher-like programs have continued to expand across the United States, the Supreme Court has consistently ruled that including religious private schools in such programs does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. A counterfactual to the current court ruling could be that in a world, say, where every voucher is used to prop up a religious school, then the government is establishing religion. In this study, we investigate the extent to which a voucher-like program props up religious schools in Alabama. We find that though there are a wide variety of choice options, religious private schools participate in the program at disproportionately higher rates, suggesting that such programs may disproportionately benefit religious schools.

Authors

• Annah Rogers, University of West Alabama

• Bryan Mann, University of Kansas