Cite as: 536 U. S. 639 (2002)
Souter, J., dissenting
$2,500 cap that the program places on tuition for participating low-income pupils has the effect of curtailing the participation of nonreligious schools: "nonreligious schools with higher tuition (about $4,000) stated that they could afford to accommodate just a few voucher students." 14 By comparison, the average tuition at participating Catholic schools in Cleveland in 1999-2000 was $1,592, almost $1,000 below the cap.15
evidence to support her assertion that "many parents with vouchers selected nonreligious private schools over religious alternatives," ibid., and in fact the evidence is to the contrary, as only 129 students used vouchers at private nonreligious schools.
14 General Accounting Office Report No. 01-914, School Vouchers: Publicly Funded Programs in Cleveland and Milwaukee 25 (Aug. 2001) (GAO Report). Of the 10 nonreligious private schools that "participate" in the Cleveland voucher program, 3 currently enroll no voucher students. And of the remaining seven schools, one enrolls over half of the 129 students that attend these nonreligious schools, while only two others enroll more than 8 voucher students. App. 281a-286a. Such schools can charge full tuition to students whose families do not qualify as "low income," but unless the number of vouchers are drastically increased, it is unlikely that these students will constitute a large fraction of voucher recipients, as the program gives preference in the allocation of vouchers to low-income children. See Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 3313.978(A) (West Supp. 2002).
15 GAO Report 25. A 1993-1994 national study reported a similar average tuition for Catholic elementary schools ($1,572), but higher tuition for other religious schools ($2,213), and nonreligious schools ($3,773). U. S. Dept. of Ed., Office of Educational Research and Improvement, National Center for Education Statistics, Private Schools in the United States: A Statistical Profile, 1993-94 (NCES 1997-459 June 1997) (Table 1.5). The figures are explained in part by the lower teaching expenses of the religious schools and general support by the parishes that run them. Catholic schools, for example, received 24.1% of their revenue from parish subsidies in the 2000-2001 school year. National Catholic Educational Association, Balance Sheet for Catholic Elementary Schools: 2001 Income and Expenses 25 (2001). Catholic schools also often rely on priests or members of religious communities to serve as principals, 32% of 550 reporting schools in one study, id., at 21; at the elementary school level, the average salary of religious sisters serving as principals in 2000-2001 was $28,876, as compared to lay principals, who received on average $45,154,
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