Pennsylvania

AMENDMENT LANGUAGE

State Constitutional Provision

Pa. Const. art. III, § 15: "No money raised for the support of the public schools of the Commonwealth shall be appropriated to or used for the support of any sectarian school."

Pa. Const. art. III, § 29: "No appropriation shall be made for charitable, educational or benevolent purposes to any person or community nor to any denomination and sectarian institution, corporation or association: Provided, that appropriations may be made for pensions of gratuities for military service and to blind persons twenty-one years of age and upwards and for assistance to mothers having dependent children and to aged persons without adequate means of support and in the form of scholarship grants or loans for higher educational purposes to residents of the Commonwealth enrolled in institutions of higher learning except that no scholarship, grants or loans for higher educational purposes shall be given to persons enrolled in a theological seminary or school of theology."

RELEVANT CASES

State Courts

·       Giacomucci v. Southeast Delco School District, 742 A.2d 1165 (Pa. 1999) (School district lacks authority to adopt a private school tuition reimbursement or voucher plan under state law; the court did not take up the issue of whether the school district’s action violated provisions of the state constitution).

·       Unionville-Chadds Ford School Dist. v. Rotteveel, 487 A.2d 109 (Pa.Cmwlth. 1985) (The term “residential pupil” in the school transportation act means any student from the area who is lawfully enrolled in kindergarten through high school at a public or private school. Thus, the school district could not refuse to transport a kindergarten student at a private school who was below the required age of public school kindergarten students).

·       Springfield School Dist., Delaware County v. Department of Ed., 397 A.2d 1154 (Pa., 1979) (The Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that the amended school transportation act did not violate the federal constitution; the Court determined that the state constitution was no more stringent than the federal constitution so the Court rejected state constitutional challenges to the act).

·       School Dist. of Pittsburgh v. Com., Dept. of Ed., 382 A.2d 772 (Pa.Cmwlth. 1978) (The court upheld the amended school transportation act as constitutional under both the state and federal constitutions and ordered the school district to transport nonpublic school students who attended school outside the boundaries). See identical case: Springfield School Dist., Delaware County v. Com., Dept. of Ed., 384 A.2d 1049 (Pa.Cmwlth. 1978); Pequea Valley School Dist. v. Com., Dept. of Ed., 387 A.2d 1022 (Pa.Cmwlth. 1978); McKeesport Area School Dist. v. Com., Dept. of Ed., 392 A.2d 912, (Pa.Cmwlth. 1978).

·       Rhoades v. School Dist. of Abington Tp., 226 A.2d 53 (Pa. 1967) (State statute mandating that where a school officials provided free transportation to public school students, they also must also provide free transportation to students attending non-profit, private schools does not violate the state constitution’s bar on public money going to sectarian schools since the statute is a general welfare measure and transportation has no religious significance.)

·       Collins v. Kephart, 114 A. 360 (Pa. 1921) (The Pennsylvania Supreme Court restrained the State Treasurer from giving state funds to four hospitals and one university because they were “denominational or sectarian,” which violates the state Constitution.).

·       Commonwealth ex rel. Wehrle v. School District of Altoona, 88 A. 481 (Pa. 1913) (No pupil shall be refused admission to the courses in additional schools or departments because his elementary or academic education is being or has been received in a private school).

·       Stevenson v. Hanyon, 7 Pa. Dist. R. 585 (1898) (Reading from Bible and singing hymns during the opening exercise of a public school does not amount to unconstitutional sectarian instruction because the Bible is not a sectarian document and it can be used for the moral education of children. Rather, the state constitution prohibits public funding of a sectarian school, which is a school controlled by a particular denomination or sect).

·       Bender v. Streabich, 37 A. 853 (Pa. 1897) (School directors lack the power to permit the use of public school buildings for any purpose other than the education of children; this includes a bar on the use of the facilities for sectarian religious services).

·       Hysong v. School Dist. of Gallitzin Borough, 30 A. 482 (Pa. 1894) (The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania affirmed the lower court decision to enjoin teachers from using school property to impart Catholic religious instruction to children of Catholic parents after school hours but holding it within the discretion of the school board to hire nuns as a majority of the teachers and to permit the nuns to wear religious garb).

REPEAL EFFORTS

See the Heritage Foundation website for a list of state contacts.