Denial of state funds for Catholic school upheld

PORTLAND – A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday filed by two Minot families who wanted the state to pay their children’s tuition at a Catholic high school.

John and Belinda Eulitt and Kelly Mackinnon filed the suit in 2002 claiming a state law that pays tuition for secondary education is unconstitutional because it prohibits the money from being used at religious schools.

Minot does not have a high school of its own, and the families were sending their daughters to St. Dominic’s Regional High School, a private Catholic school in Auburn.

The lawsuit claimed that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling two years ago made clear that the state should pay for tuition at religious schools. That ruling said that a voucher program in Ohio that offers parents a wide range of choices among secular and religious schools was constitutional.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk ruled last year that the Supreme Court’s ruling meant that states can pay for religious schools, but don’t have to. She said that since the Minot families have the same educational options as other families, they were not subjected to discrimination.

The families objected to Kravchuk’s decision, and U.S. District Judge John Woodcock on Tuesday upheld the ruling.