Governor Rick Snyder has approved an education budget which includes $2.5 million for private and religious schools. That seems to be incongruent with the Michigan Constitution, which states:
“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 voucher, subsidy, grant or loan of public monies or property shall be provided, directly or indirectly, to support the attendance of any student or the employment of any person at any such nonpublic school or at any location or institution where instruction is offered in whole or in part to such nonpublic school students.”
Susan Demas, publisher of Inside Michigan Politics says, “I think it’s clear that the Governor is sending a message that he wants this to be a test case. He wants to see where the courts fall on this.”
GUEST Susan Demas is the publisher of Inside Michigan Politics.
