Nevada Supreme Court again blocks voucher-style initiative
The Nevada Supreme Court on Monday blocked an initiative that would have established a mechanism for parents to use state money for their children’s private school expenses.
An initiative that would have established “education freedom accounts” in Nevada was struck down by a Carson City judge as unconstitutional earlier this year because it failed to identify how the measure would be funded.
In a unanimous decision filed Monday, the seven Supreme Court justices upheld that decision.
Under Nevada’s constitution, if an initiative calls for spending money, it must also identify funding, such as a tax.
“The initiative process does not permit petition proponents to propose statutes that may never take effect because they rely on the Legislature to enact legislation effectuating them,” the justices wrote in their decision. “Thus, we conclude that the district court properly determined that the initiative petition was void…”
Education savings accounts that would allow parents to use public money to pay for their children’s private school expenses have become a hallmark of the school-choice movement backed by conservative groups in recent years.
The ballot initiative in Nevada was introduced by Education Freedom for Nevada, a political action committee with ties to Power2Parent, a nonprofit group that advocates for parents’ rights. The initiative was challenged by Beverly Rogers and Rory Reid, who head the Rogers Foundation, a charitable foundation focused on education.
If upheld, the ballot initiative would have needed to gather more than 140,000 signatures from voters to be placed on the ballot in November. After the initiative was struck down in April, blocking the petition’s authors from gathering signatures, the Education Freedom PAC appealed the decision to the Supreme Court.
The PAC said a press release Monday that the court had ruled against Nevada parents and families’ fundamental right to direct their child’s education.
“Parents are begging for the freedom to choose the school and the classroom that is best for their child,” they wrote. “Students should no longer be relegated to a failing school based solely on their zip code.”
In a press release, the Rogers Foundation called the court’s decision a “clean sweep” over the efforts introduced this year by a “right-wing special interest group” to divert public tax dollars to private schools.
“We know this and other out-of-state funded right-wing groups won’t stop trying to siphon tax dollars away from neighborhood public schools for private schools,” Rogers said in the release. “Public schools are worth protecting because they serve ALL students and are accountable to the people. Education shouldn’t be about profit, it should be about serving kids and their communities.”
Contact Lorraine Longhi at 702-387-5298 or llonghi@reviewjournal.com. Follow her at @lolonghi on Twitter.
Education Freedom PAC v. Rogers by Steve Sebelius on Scribd
