On March 14, 2000, Judge L. Ralph Smith Jr. of the Circuit Court of Florida ruled that Florida's Constitution prohibits students from using taxpayer money for private school tuition, blocking the state's eight-month-old school voucher program. This is the second, major legal setback for voucher supporters in recent months. A federal judge recently ruled that Cleveland, Ohio's voucher program violates the federal Constitution's separation of church and state.
In defending against the Florida lawsuit, filed by groups of teachers and parents, school voucher supporters argued that since the state already spent millions a year sending special needs students to private schools, it could also help students escape low-performing schools. However, Judge Smith said that because the voucher program used private schools to provide the same services offered by public ones, it "supplants the system of free public schools mandated by the constitution."
Kramer Levin partner Marvin Frankel and associate Justine Harris were among counsel for the successful plaintiffs in both the Florida and Ohio cases.