White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany praised the Supreme Court on Tuesday for striking down a Montana law banning religious schools from receiving governmental aid.
The Tuesday 5-4 ruling allows religious schools to receive tax credit scholarships under a program in Montana, which the state’s revenue department had sought to prevent. McEnany praised the decision as a helpful step in the Trump administration’s push for school choice, according to CBS News’ Mark Knoller.
States, she said, “may no longer hide behind rules motivated by insidious bias against Catholics.”
WH hails SCOTUS decision striking down Montana ban on aid to religious school. In written statement, @PressSec says states “may no longer hide behind rules motivated by insidious bias against Catholics.” She says Trump Administration views “school choice” as a civil rights issue.
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 30, 2020
The White House wasn’t the only group to praise the decision. The Project 21 black leadership network also said the decision would make it easier for black students to gain access to better schools. (RELATED: NH Dem Backtracks After Saying School Choice Only Works For The ‘Well Educated’)
“The justices in the majority tore down a monument to intolerance and discrimination,” said Project 21 Co-Chairman Council Nedd II, a former charter school teacher in Washington, D.C. “Since the Reconstruction era, Blaine Amendments have been used to keep children from getting the best possible education by denying their parents a true choice of schools. This victory today will do more to advance black lives than any march or protest we’ve seen in the past few weeks.”
Not all reviews of the decision were good, however. The union president for the Montana Federation of Public Employees, Amanda Curtis, argued the decision benefited the wealthy.
“Today’s decision violates Montana’s commitment to public education, our children, and our constitution. Extremist special interests are manipulating our tax code to rob Montana children of quality education while padding the pockets of those who run exclusive, discriminatory private schools,” Curtis said, according to the AP.