Word: states
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...regularly fought in class and cursed the teacher. Milancuk wanted to transfer Derrick, but his salary as a forklift driver couldn't cover private-school tuition. Yet Milancuk found a way out, thanks to Cleveland's pioneering school-voucher program, which granted him close to $1,500 in state funds to help enroll Derrick at St. Stanislaus, a nearby Catholic school. Now Derrick wears a crisp uniform. His reading has improved. And the weekly Mass and Bible study have moved Derrick to say his daily prayers without prompting. Says his dad, "The school is really building his faith...
That may prove to be more of a curse than a blessing. Last week a federal judge struck down Cleveland's voucher program, ruling that it violates the constitutional separation of church and state. Citing Jefferson and Madison, Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. wrote that because four-fifths of the private schools participating in the voucher program are religious, the program robs parents of "genuine choice" between sectarian and secular schools, thus "advancing religion through government-supported religious indoctrination." The decision is the fourth in recent months to bar the use of vouchers in parochial schools, and voucher opponents--mainly teachers...
Despite its recent setbacks, the voucher movement is gaining ground in state legislatures and some state courts. This fall Florida started the first statewide voucher program. And the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the use of vouchers in parochial schools in Milwaukee. In the presidential campaign, G.O.P. candidates John McCain and George W. Bush are trumpeting voucher proposals. While Vice President Al Gore launched an ad that calls vouchers a "big mistake," his Democratic opponent Bill Bradley supports them, at least as "experiments...
Four years ago, a group of lesbian and gay Vermonters got together in the basement of an Episcopal church to plot the redefinition of marriage. Among them were a nurse, a few lawyers and a pair of Christmas-tree farmers. They thought the state should treat their relationships no differently from those of heterosexuals, and they eventually brought a lawsuit...
Instead the court told the legislature to decide how best to extend to gays the perks married people enjoy, such as state tax breaks. It gave lawmakers the option to grant gays marriage licenses, but didn't require that step. The Governor is leaning toward a less controversial alternative: authorization of the arrangement known antiseptically as domestic partnership...