November 10, 2003 -  New York - The American Jewish Committee today asked a Colorado court to declare the state's school voucher program illegal because it violates the state constitution.

The Colorado state constitution prohibits the state from "paying from any public fund or moneys whatever, anything in aid of any church or sectarian society, or for any sectarian purpose, or to help support or sustain any school...controlled by any church or sectarian denomination whatsoever."

AJC joined with a coalition of civil liberties and public education groups, including People for the American Way, the Colorado Education Association, and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, in filing a brief challenging the legality of the school voucher program, known as the Colorado Opportunity Contract Pilot Program.

"The use of taxpayer money to support private schools, secular or religious, is simply bad public policy," said Jeffrey Sinensky, the AJC's general counsel and director of domestic policy. "Diverting desperately needed public funds for vouchers does more harm than good to our public schools and the children who continue to depend on them."

Enacted in April, the Colorado program is the first state voucher legislation passed since the U.S. Supreme Court declared last year, in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, that taxpayer-supported vouchers for private and parochial schools do not violate the federal Constitution's Establishment Clause.

Contact: Kenneth Bandler (212) 891-6771 PR@ajc.org

        Lisa Fingeret Roth (212) 891-1385 rothl@ajc.org