Agudath Israel Lauds Legislative Passage of Michigan $500 Million Scholarship Program

October 27, 2021

Michigan legislators voted yesterday to join 18 other states which have either created or expanded school choice programs in 2021. The series of bills passed by the Michigan House and Senate would empower parents to make the educational decisions that work best for their children.

The program provides eligible children with Student Opportunity Scholarship accounts that can be used for educational expenses, including private school tuition. Families earning 200% of the income threshold to receive reduced-price lunch (approximately $98,000 for a family of four) will receive nearly $5,000 per student while lower income students, foster children, and children with disabilities will receive close to $8,000.

The funding for the accounts will be generated by donations to nonprofit scholarship organizations which would then create scholarship accounts for eligible students. The contributors will receive a dollar-for-dollar state tax credit in return for their donation. While more than twenty states have tax-credit scholarship programs and eight states have education savings accounts, Michigan would become the third state (all enacted this year) to use a hybrid model that would fund such accounts via tax credits.

“The coronavirus pandemic has helped policymakers realize that parents need immediate additional educational options,” said Rabbi A. D. Motzen, national director of state relations for Agudath Israel of America. “Michigan’s Student Opportunity Scholarship program will incentivize philanthropic support of education and empower parents, ultimately leading to greater educational accountability.”

Agudath Israel commends Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, Speaker Jason Wentworth, and the bill sponsors (Senators Lana Theis and Tom Barrett, Representatives Bryan Posthumus and Phil Green) for their leadership and commitment to Michigan families.

Agudath Israel urges Governor Whitmer to sign this common-sense bill into law.



Agudath Israel of America Files “Friend of Court” Brief in Michigan Case Supporting State Aid to Religious Schools

October 27, 2021
Agudath Israel of America filed an amicus curiae (“Friend of the Court”) brief in a case before the Supreme Court of Michigan urging the court to uphold a state program that provides for state reimbursement to nonpublic schools for services provided by the schools in compliance with state mandates. In the case, Council of Organizations and Others for Education About Parochiad, Et Al V. Michigan, Et Al, Michigan’s program of mandated reimbursement is being challenged because it provides for state aid to religious schools, and opponents of this aid claim that this violates a provision in the state constitution that prohibits government assistance to religious institutions.
 
The Agudath Israel brief argues that the provision in the Michigan state constitution that prohibits state aid to religious schools (called a “Blaine Amendment”) was adopted primarily due to anti-Catholic bigotry, as was Michigan’s approval of a ballot proposal that prohibits the state from providing aid to religious schools. The brief argues that under a United States Supreme Court decision, Comm. for Pub. Ed. & Religious Liberty v. Regan, decided in 1980, the court held that it is constitutional for a state to provide reimbursement to religious schools for their performance of state-mandated services, and that such aid is not a violation of the “Establishment Clause” of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. the brief also states that under a more recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer, to deny reimbursements to religious schools because of a state “Blaine Amendment” would violate the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits government interference with the free exercise of religion.
 
The Agudath Israel brief was signed by Stephen Polter, a Michigan attorney whom Agudath Israel thanks for agreeing to serve as local counsel of record and filing the brief, Mordechai Biser, Special Counsel for Agudath Israel of America, and Rabbi Abba Cohen, Agudath Israel’s Vice President for Government Affairs and Washington Director and Counsel. Agudath Israel thanks Mark Pollak, a student at Columbia Law School, for his extensive assistance with the research and writing of the brief, and also Scott Whitman, a student at Georgetown University Law Center, for his research and writing assistance.