The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America – the nation’s largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization – joined with other school choice advocates in a friend of the court brief filed with the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. The brief asks the court to overturn a lower court decision that prohibited the use of government funded vouchers at parochial schools.

Nathan Diament, Director of the Orthodox Union’s Institute for Public Affairs, issued the following statement:

It is consistently surprising to me that well-to-do individuals who take advantage of a wide range of educational choices for their children are willing to deny that choice to poor, inner-city parents for the sake of a misguided reading of the Constitution’s Establishment Clause. The Constitution does not prohibit a parent sending a voucher to a parochial school to cover tuition any more than it bans a retiree from signing a social security check over to the same parochial school as a donation to its scholarship fund. We are confident the Wisconsin Court of Appeals will rule in our favor, and in favor of the parents who wish to provide their kids with a better chance at success in life.