Credit Reginald Hardwick / WKAR-MSU
A deadlock on the Michigan Supreme Court has effectively reversed a ban on any taxpayer funds going to private and religious schools. The decision allows state funds to go toward helping schools comply with health and safety mandates.
Religious organizations cheered the decision, while public school administrators and teachers unions won’t rule out a renewed challenge.
Republican-led legislatures approved nominal funding in two state budgets to test the limits of a 1970 voter-approved amendment to the Michigan Constitution. The amendment includes this provision:
No public monies or property shall be appropriated or paid or any public credit utilized, by the legislature or any other political subdivision or agency of the state directly or indirectly to aid or maintain any private, denominational or other nonpublic, pre-elementary, elementary, or secondary school. No payment, credit, tax benefit, exemption or deductions, tuition vouch
In a split decision, the Michigan Supreme Court on Monday upheld a legislative appropriation to reimburse nonpublic schools for state-mandated practices, funding that had been opposed by public schools advocates.
GOP-nominated Justices Stephen Markman, Brian Zahra and David Viviano said the appropriation complied with both the religious clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and a 1970 state constitutional amendment that bans public funding to private schools.
Because the legislative appropriation does not appropriate funds for nonpublic-school education services, it remains in compliance with the 1970 amendment, the three justices wrote. Supporters had argued the appropriation was reimbursement not the funding or aid banned by the 1970 amendment.
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LANSING — Attorney General Dana Nessel issued a warning to parents and students to be aware of an online "sextortion" scam, echoing warnings from local law enforcement and school districts in recent weeks.Nessel and the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators cautioned against the scam in a press release Tuesday evening, Dec. 22.Sextorion occurs when a predator befriends a teen and manipulates them into exposing themselves in explicit photos or videos. The predator then
With COVID-19 still being present, more and more teens are at home spending time on the Internet. Because of that reason, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators want parents to be on the lookout for predators.