The 2007 North Dakota Legislature should scrap a taxpayer-financed scholarship program for students at the state's private religious colleges. Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem issued an opinion Wednesday which said the program violates the state Constitution because it supports religious schools and shortchanges public college students.
In adjusting the funding formula for private school students, the 2005 Legislature called attention to a program that has been in effect since 1973. The changes resulted in scholarship amounts that were higher for private college students than for public students. While the program probably has been a constitutional violation since 1973, the Legislature's tinkering raised questions that apparently had not been asked before.
In June, a Forum editorial said the practice of diverting public education money to private college students - and thus to religious-based campuses - "should at least be questioned, and probably challenged in a courtroom." The attorney general's opinion concludes the program would not survive a court challenge. He wrote, "...a court presented with this issue would likely find that those provisions are unconstitutional."
Stenehjem was careful to be specific about the inequality in the scholarship program. But his overall opinion strongly suggests the diversion of public dollars to religious students and schools violates Article VIII, Section 5 of the state Constitution, which says:
"...No money raised for the support of the public schools of this state shall be appropriated to or used for the support of any sectarian school." (Emphasis added.)
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It doesn't get much clearer than that. Yet, since 1973 lawmakers, governors, attorneys general and others have ignored the constitutional prohibition on appropriating public dollars for use at private sectarian schools. Stenehjem's opinion puts the Legislature on notice that the state risks a losing court fight if the program remains in place.
Furthermore, North Dakota's traditional support for public education should never have been compromised in the first place. While we recognize the good work done by the state's private colleges, they are, after all, private. Moreover, the three private campuses that benefit most from the unconstitutional scholarship program are proudly rooted in religion, as their mission statements make clear.
The state has no business funding religious schools. If the Legislature doesn't stop it, the courts should.
Forum editorials represent the opinion of Forum
management and the newspaper's Editorial Board.
