June 27, 2025 -- In reaction to the decision today by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the Cleveland voucher program, the Council for American Private Education issued the following statement by Joe McTighe, executive director.
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We welcome today's decision advancing the right of parents to direct the education of their children.

The court has resolved a momentous legal matter: whether states can provide parents with vouchers for tuition at religious schools. In ruling that they can, the court has advanced the right of low-income parents to choose their children's schools and to provide their children a quality education.

Poor and minority children have been promised equal educational opportunity for decades. But time and again that promise has been broken. Today's decision offers new hope. States can now make good on the promise by providing poor children the same chance that other children have: the chance to attend a school that works, whether public or private.

This could be a watershed moment in the history of school reform if states choose to seize the opportunity presented by the court today. We hope that years from now, today will be viewed as a day of awakening in America's struggle for civil rights, a moment when minority children were emancipated from inadequate education, a time when poor parents were given the power to do what other parents do: choose a decent school for their children.

An essential national objective is to educate young people to be informed, skillful, committed citizens who are concerned about others and who contribute to the common good. That objective can be achieved in a variety of settings: government-run schools, church-related schools, independent schools. Government currently helps low-income students choose such schools at the college level. Students can use government grants and tax credits to attend Yale University, Yeshiva University, or City University. And our country's system of higher education is arguably the best in the world. Government should offer the same help to needy parents with children in elementary and secondary schools, where the groundwork for successful schooling is set.

We hope this decision opens the way for new partnerships between public and private schools in educating America's students, ensuring a vital democracy, and promoting a good society.

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The Council for American Private Education (CAPE) is a coalition of 17 national organizations (listed below) that serve religious and independent elementary and secondary schools. One in four of the nation's schools is a private school; eleven percent of all students attend them. That translates into 27,000 schools and 6 million students. CAPE represents 80 percent of the private school community nationwide.

American Montessori Society Association of Christian Schools International Association of Waldorf Schools of N.A. Christian Schools International Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Friends Council on Education Jewish Community Day School Network Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod National Association of Episcopal Schools National Association of Independent Schools National Catholic Educational Association National Christian School Association Seventh-day Adventist Board of Education Solomon Schechter Day School Association Southern Baptist Association of Christian Schools Toussaint Institute for Historically Black Independent Schools United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 28 Affiliated State Organizations

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Contact: Joe McTighe Executive Director Council for American Private Education (CAPE) Tel - 301-916-8460 Fax - 301-916-8485 E-Mail - [email protected] Web- http://www.capenet.org