The future of legislation that would put limits on public money in religious schools is in question, after a key House committee declined to take up the bill as written.
S.219, which prohibits private schools from discriminating and limits what religious schools can do with taxpayer dollars, passed the Vermont Senate last month with little opposition. But the chair of a key committee said Friday that lawmakers in the House are not planning to take up the full bill.
Senate lawmakers “worked incredibly hard on this (bill), and they did really good work,” said Rep. Kate Webb, D-Shelburne, the chair of the House Education Committee.
But as for key provisions of the bill, Webb said, “I think we have consensus that that should wait.”
Earlier this year, the Senate Education Committee drew up S.219 amid a rapidly changing legal landscape for religious schools.
A series of court rulings over the past few years have whittled away at the separation of church and state, opening the door for public money to be used in Vermont’s religious schools.
Aiming to place restrictions on that money, lawmakers drafted a bill with two key provisions. The first would require independent schools that receive public money to adhere to the same anti-discrimination rules that public schools follow, including protections for LGBTQ+ students.
The second would bar religious schools from using public dollars “to support religious instruction, religious indoctrination, religious worship, or the propagation of religious views.”
The legislation also includes a ban on sending tuition money to states that don’t border Vermont and any other countries, with the exception of Quebec.
But Vermont school officials’ groups, as well as the Vermont ACLU, urged lawmakers to hold off.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision this summer in a case involving religious schools in Maine, and many believe that the decision will have legal implications for Vermont’s schools. The two states have similar systems for using public tuition money in private schools.
Lawmakers “cannot afford to get S.219 wrong,” Harrison Stark, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Vermont, said in testimony submitted to lawmakers last week.
“Waiting for the Supreme Court’s decision in (the upcoming case) ensures that this committee has the benefit of a full and complete constitutional landscape, offering the greatest opportunity to craft a durable and constitutional solution that protects Vermont’s most important values in the long term,” Stark said.
A coalition of school organizations, including Vermont’s superintendents, principals, school boards and the state teachers union also asked lawmakers to hold off for now.
“In order to address these concerns fully and appropriately, we ask the Committee to wait until the next legislative session to advance a bill on this topic,” the organizations’ leaders wrote in testimony submitted in January.
House lawmakers appeared to heed those warnings. Passing a bill now could “interfere” with the ultimate goals of the legislation, Webb said.
“I think we’re also very conscious of the fact that these issues bring forth a lot of action around the country, and that what we would do would likely end up in a lawsuit,” she said.
Lawmakers are still considering a provision that would bar independent schools from discriminating, either on its own or as a part of another bill. But it’s not clear if there is a path forward for restrictions on public money in religious schools this session.
“I’m sorry the House didn’t get to that point. I’m disappointed,” said Sen. Brian Campion, D-Bennington, the chair of the Senate Education Committee and a driving force behind the bill. “But if that’s not where the House is, at the very least, we should be protecting LGBTQ+ (students).”
