The state of Arizona has an innovative way to promote school choice and academic achievement. It provides dollar-for-dollar tax credits, up to $500, to individuals who pay into a tuition scholarship organization that helps children attend private schools.
But so-called civil liberties groups claim the tax credits amount to government support for religion, because many students who use the scholarships choose to attend religious rather than secular private schools.
That criticism is nonsense. Arizona provides the scholarships without requiring or forbidding students to use the money to attend parochial schools. That choice is left to parents and children, so the tax credits are scarcely a government endorsement of, or support for, religion.
Appropriately, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld Arizona’s commonsense law. Parents, not government, decide what schools their children will attend with the tax breaks, noted Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the 5-4 majority.
“[C]ontributions result from the decisions of private taxpayers regarding their own funds,” he declared.