蜜桃影视

Relying on a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the Education Department that religiously affiliated organizations will be eligible to provide services to low-income students attending private schools.

Under the 鈥渆quitable services鈥� provision of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, low-income students attending private schools are eligible for tutoring and other services like their peers at public schools. Private schools, which may decline to participate, work with school districts to negotiate the services they need, and the district then provides the services using its own personnel or pays a third-party service provider.

The current version of that law, known as the Every Student Succeeds Act, requires that those service providers be 鈥渋ndependent of … any religious organization.鈥�

The Education Department said that restriction violates the Supreme Court鈥檚 2017 Trinity Lutheran decision. In that case, justices ruled that a church-affiliated preschool could not be barred from a playground resurfacing program simply because of its religious affiliation.

鈥淭丑别 Trinity Lutheran decision reaffirmed the long-understood intent of the First Amendment to not restrict the free exercise of religion,鈥� Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in a . 鈥淭hose seeking to provide high-quality educational services to students and teachers should not be discriminated against simply based on the religious character of their organization.鈥�

A legal challenge to the department鈥檚 change seems likely, given ongoing legal disputes about the scope of the Trinity Lutheran ruling.

Under the change announced Monday, teachers at a parochial school could, for instance, attend a secular professional development program at a Catholic university, Sister Dale McDonald, director of public policy at the National Catholic Educational Association, told 蜜桃影视.

School districts would still have to approve the expenditure, she noted.

Other restrictions on services provided to private school students, including that they be 鈥渟ecular, neutral and non-ideological鈥� and that they be provided by an organization independent of the private school, will continue.

The change wasn鈥檛 one the Catholic education group had been actively seeking, McDonald said.

鈥淚t would come up occasionally. We were starting to think about it after the Trinity Lutheran decision … If the services have to be secular, neutral, non-ideological, well then, anybody can provide them who鈥檚 competent to provide them,鈥� she said.

It鈥檚 difficult to say how much Title I money nationally could now go to religiously affiliated organizations under this program. In Massachusetts, for instance, of the state鈥檚 Title I allocation went to private schools last year.

The decision seems like part of DeVos鈥檚 broader effort to expand federal support of private schools, said Scott Sargrad, vice president of K-12 education policy at the Center for American Progress.

鈥淚t sounds like something that is a first step. It鈥檚 the step she was able to take toward sending public dollars to private schools and private religious schools,鈥� he said.

The Education Department did not respond to a request for comment on what spurred the change and whether further policy changes are forthcoming in light of the Trinity Lutheran decision.

A legal challenge is likely, particularly given House Democrats鈥� comments that they鈥檒l be looking into DeVos鈥檚 legal justification, Sargrad said.

A spokesman for House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Bobby Scott that House Democrats are 鈥渃arefully reviewing the legality鈥� of the proposed change.

The decision will have an impact, but not immediately, McDonald said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 something that will take time to work out, that people understand what the limits are and how much can be done and who can do what.鈥�

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