Cite as: 536 U. S. 639 (2002)
Souter, J., dissenting
There is, in any case, no way to interpret the 96.6% of current voucher money going to religious schools as reflecting a free and genuine choice by the families that apply for vouchers. The 96.6% reflects, instead, the fact that too few nonreligious school desks are available and few but religious schools can afford to accept more than a handful of voucher students. And contrary to the majority's assertion, ante, at 654, public schools in adjacent districts hardly have a financial incentive to participate in the Ohio voucher program, and none has.17 For the overwhelming number of children in the voucher scheme, the only alternative to the public schools is religious. And it is entirely irrelevant that the State did not deliberately design the network of private schools for the sake of channeling money into religious institutions. The criterion is one of genuinely free choice on the part of the private individuals who choose, and a Hobson's choice is not a choice, whatever the reason for being Hobsonian.
III
I do not dissent merely because the majority has misap-plied its own law, for even if I assumed arguendo that the
well. Ante, at 656-657, n. 4. The majority is dead right about this, and there is no inconsistency here: any voucher program that satisfied the majority's requirement of "true private choice" would be even more egregiously unconstitutional than the current scheme due to the substantial amount of aid to religious teaching that would be required.
17 As the Court points out, ante, at 645-646, n. 1, an out-of-district public school that participates will receive a $2,250 voucher for each Cleveland student on top of its normal state funding. The basic state funding, though, is a drop in the bucket as compared to the cost of educating that student, as much of the cost (at least in relatively affluent areas with presumptively better academic standards) is paid by local income and property taxes. See Brief for Ohio School Boards Association et al. as Amici Curiae 19-21. The only adjacent district in which the voucher amount is close enough to cover the local contribution is East Cleveland City (local contribution, $2,019, see Ohio Dept. of Ed., 2002 Community School Report Card, East Cleveland City School District, p. 2), but its public-school system hardly provides an attractive alternative for Cleveland parents, as it too has been classified by Ohio as an "academic emergency" district. See ibid.
707
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