Three families arguing the state should pay tuition for their children to attend private religious schools because they live in school districts with no high schools made their case before a federal appeals court in Boston on Wednesday. Angela and Troy Nelson pose in August 2018 with their children, Royce, and Alicia, at their home in Palermo. They and two others families say the state should pay tuition for private religious schools because they live in districts with no high schools. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal The families have pointed to a 2017 Supreme Court ruling in which the court decided a church preschool should be able to benefit from public funding to resurface a playground to make their argument the Maine Department of Education should pay their out-of-district tuition at religious schools. Maine District Court Judge D. Brock Hornby ruled in favor of the department in June , upholding a Maine law that prohibits state tuition money from being used at religious schools. However, he also said the Supreme Court case did not definitively upend case law barring public money from going to religious education and that the appeals court would need to address that issue. “We believe it’s now […]
