Next month the Florida Supreme Court will hear arguments about the legality of the state's Opportunity Scholarships Program, the statewide voucher plan that allows parents of children attending failing public schools to send their kids elsewhere, including religious schools.

Lower courts have found the program violates the Florida Constitution. If that position stands, other religion- neutral initiatives that receive money from the state also could be subject to challenge.

For example, religious hospitals and medical clinics reimbursed through Medicaid could be deprived of government payments. And students on the popular Bright Futures and McKay scholarships who have the chance to choose their schools, even those with religious ties, couldn't be confident their scholarships would survive.

Upholding the lower court's decision would discriminate against religious institutions.

The justices should overturn the lower court and let the voucher program flourish.

At issue is the meaning of Article I, Section 3 of the Florida Constitution. The last sentence reads: ``No revenue of the state or any political subdivision or agency thereof shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution.''

Opponents of Florida's voucher program - primarily the teachers unions - say that because kids are using the scholarships to attend religious schools, the scholarships are ``in aid of'' religion.

But Gov. Jeb Bush and others who support the plan say that it is religion- neutral, that school vouchers are a government benefit to children, not religious institutions.

Moreover, parents, not public officials, control the payment of scholarship funds. If religious schools benefit, it is only as a result of the independent choices of the parents of eligible children.

Yet the lower court decided that under Florida's constitution, an incidental benefit to religious institutions is unconstitutional. And there's the rub that could create chaos for hospitals and other social programs. Nothing in the language or history of the provision says it applies only to schools.
It's no accident that in opposing Opportunity Scholarships, the teachers unions and the American Civil Liberties Union have been silent about these other state-supported programs.

Of the 50 states, Florida alone has given all parents, regardless of their financial means, the opportunity to remove their kids from chronically failing schools. The voucher program was enacted, apart from any religious considerations, to benefit children. It provides parents access to public and private schools, sectarian and secular. It is neutral toward religion.

It is constitutional.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:

Dear Editor:

Your editorial on vouchers gets it right. Our public school system is failing our children. Unfortunately, students who need the most help are unable to escape the public school system because they cannot afford to. With a captive market, public schools have no reason to improve, despite their record of overspending and underachieving.
Vouchers level the playing field for all students. They do not help religious institutions or private schools; they help children. Vouchers also inspire public schools to compete for students, creating a marketplace of quality educational options available to all students, regardless of income.

BARBARA BODE, Tampa, FL