Neil Gorsuch on Education

States funding private schools must fund parochial schools

The court stopped short of requiring states to fund religious education, ruling only that programs cannot differentiate between religious and secular private schools. "A state need not subsidize private education. But once a state decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious," Roberts wrote.

Roberts and other conservative justices said the no-aid policy had its roots in 19th-century anti-Catholic sentiment, that blocked religious schools from receiving public funds. Amendments in 37 states were "'born of bigotry' and 'arose at a time of pervasive hostility to the Catholic Church,'" he wrote. "Many of its state counterparts have a similarly 'shameful pedigree.'"