Anderson v. Town of Durham
Institute for Justice and Maine Parents Challenge State Law Barring Religious Options from School Choice Program

The Institute for Justice is challenging a 1980 Maine legal change that erroneously banned religious schools from the state’s 100-year-old school choice program.  The case was filed on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court victory upholding Cleveland’s school choice program, a decision that gives ammunition to Maine parents fighting for the right to send their children to religious schools through the state’s “tuitioning,” or rural school choice program.

The Institute represents families from three small towns in Maine—Durham, Minot and Raymond—where the local school districts offer high school tuition for students to attend the schools of their choice in lieu of maintaining public schools. For most of its existence, the system permitted the selection of religious schools.

The Institute for Justice argues that the U.S. Supreme Court clearly gave a green light to including religious options in a school choice program such as Maine’s. Furthermore, to bar parents from a religious school option violates a well-established line of U.S. Supreme Court precedents.