Virginia

AMENDMENT LANGUAGE

State Constitutional Provisions

Va. Const. art. VIII, § 10: "No appropriation of public funds shall be made to any school or institution of learning not owned or exclusively controlled by the State or some political subdivision thereof . . . the General Assembly may . . . appropriate funds for educational purposes which may be expended in furtherance of elementary, secondary, collegiate, or graduate education of Virginia students in public and nonsectarian private schools and institutions of learning . . ."

Va. Const. art. VIII, § 11: "The General Assembly may provide for loans to, and grants to or on behalf of, students attending nonprofit institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth whose primary purpose is to provide collegiate or graduate education and not to provide religious training or theological education."

Va. Const. art. IV, § 16: "The General Assembly shall not make any appropriation of public funds, personal property, or real estate to any church or sectarian society, or any association or institution of any kind whatever which is entirely or partly, directly or indirectly, controlled by any church or sectarian society. Nor shall the General Assembly make any like appropriation to any charitable institution which is not owned or controlled by the Commonwealth: the General Assembly may, however, make appropriations to nonsectarian institutions for the reform of youthful criminals and may also authorize counties, cities, or towns to make such appropriations to any charitable institution or association."

RELEVANT CASES

State Courts

Virginia College Bldg. Authority v. Lynn, 538 S.E.2d 682 (Va., 2000) (Validation of revenue bonds for benefit of private Christian university lawful, with exception of Divinity School, since the primary purpose was providing collegiate or graduate education and not religious training or theological education).

Miller v. Ayres, 198 S.E.2d 634 (1973) (Students in sectarian schools may not receive conditional grants or gifts).

Almond v. Day, 89 S.E.2d 851 (1955) (Appropriation Act providing that sum appropriated shall be expended for tuition, institutional fees, etc., at any educational or training institution approved by Superintendent of Public Instruction, violates constitutional provision prohibiting an appropriation to any school not under public control).

Federal Courts

Goodall v. Stafford County School Board, 60 F.3d 168 (4th Cir. 1995)
(County did not need to provide cued speech transliterator in child's private sectarian school).

Phan v. Virginia, 806 F.2d 516 (4th Cir. 1986) (Provisions prohibiting state from subsidizing tuition did not violate Const. State provisions didn't bar state from subsidizing handicapped student's incidental educational expenses).

SECONDARY MATERIALS

State Attorney General Opinions

1995 Op. Atty. Gen. 149 (It would not be a violation of the Virginia Constitution for a school district to provide public school buses for transporting students to both public and private schools, even when some of those private schools are sectarian in nature. However, local school boards require additional statutory authority.)

1994 Op. Atty. Gen. 21 (Federal Constitution would not prohibit properly designed voucher program. A voucher program would probably be invalidated if the legislative record reflected religious motives, rather than legitimate secular reasons (such as expanding parental choices and educational opportunities for all students). The program could be unconstitutional if, in actual practice, it primarily benefited the sectarian schools or entangled government in religious dogma and practice.)

1991 Op. Atty. Gen. 49. (Establishment Clause of the First Amendment does not prohibit state transportation of students attending sectarian schools. However, the Constitution of Virginia explicitly and flatly prohibits any appropriation of public funds or personal property to any church or sectarian society, and to any sectarian school or educational institution. Accordingly, public provision of free transportation of students to sectarian schools would be unconstitutional under the Constitution of Virginia.)

1990 Op. Atty. Gen. 213. (Regulation that increases rental rate for church group’s use of school facilities without a similar increase on nonreligious community organizations does not violate the federal and state constitutional and statutory provisions. If the Regulation induces a particular religious group to move out of a school, the result is not to eliminate religious use of that school, but only to make the school available to other religious groups.)

1979-80 Op. Atty. Gen. 286. (Religiously affiliated high schools may be required to bear cost of administering basic competency tests).

1978-79 Op. Atty. Gen. 188. (Art. VIII, § 10, of the Constitution of Virginia "would prohibit the County from providing crossing guard service to a sectarian school." If individuals were deputized to direct traffic on public highways, the County would not be appropriating any funds to a religious body or sectarian institution of learning. However, the state is not required to deputize individuals.)

1984-85 Op. Atty. Gen. 163. (Library may lend films from their libraries to Virginia students, including students in private schools and colleges).

1976-77 Op. Atty. Gen. 31. (A school under the control of the Catholic church is "sectarian." Consequently, payments for handicapped Virginia students of the school do not meet the criteria of Art. VIII, § 10. Even though St. Andrews is located in North Carolina, outside the Commonwealth of Virginia, the payments are not excepted from the prohibition of Art. IV, § 16.)

Books and Articles

State Aid to Religious-Affiliated Schools: Political Analysis, 28 WM. & MARY L. REV. 119 (1986).

Construction and application of state equal rights amendments forbidding determination of rights based on sex, 90 A.L.R.3d 158, § 2b (1979).

Public payment of tuition, scholarship, or the like, as respects sectarian school, 81 A.L.R.2d 1309, § 2+ (1961).

REPEAL EFFORTS

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