In Cleveland, 56 schools participate in the voucher program

August 28, 1999
Web posted at: 1:49 p.m. EDT (1749 GMT)

CLEVELAND (CNN) -- A federal judge in Ohio has reversed his own ruling that blocked a school voucher program to help students from poor families attend religious or private schools

U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. was heavily criticized for his original decision Tuesday to suspend the four-year-old program until a trial determines its constitutionality. The program pays parents up to $2,500 to put their children into private rather than public schools.

But on Friday, Oliver decreed that students who participated in the Cleveland elementary school program last year may receive vouchers for one semester or until a final judgment in the case is rendered. He also set a December 13 trial date.

Critics of the program -- the only one of its kind in Ohio -- say it violates constitutionally protected boundaries between church and state by providing public funds to largely religious schools.

People for the American Way, a Washington, D.C.-based civil liberties union, along with several other national and local organizations, filed the original lawsuit that challenged the voucher program.

Most of the 56 schools participating in the program are religious schools; Catholic schools alone account for 2,400 of 4,000 students attending kindergarten through sixth grade.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled earlier that the program does not cross church-state boundaries, but struck it down because of procedural errors on the part of the Legislature that enacted it in 1995.

The legislature revived it last month, but opponents promptly sued in federal court.

Oliver said Tuesday the program appears to have the "primary effect of advancing religion." Allowing it to continue, he said, would "cause an even greater harm to the children by setting them up for a greater disruption at a later time."

Parents and government and private school officials condemned the ruling immediately.

"What possible harm would result from allowing these children to attend school where they have been enrolled pending the resolution of this court case?" Republican Gov. Bob Taft asked.

Oliver agreed with Taft on Friday, but said no new students would be allowed to enter the program until the issue has been resolved.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that approved a similar program Milwaukee enacted in 1990. Florida's program, which began this year, has also been challenged in court.

Correspondent Patty Davis and The Associated Press contributed to this report.