Education Policy — Online Journal — Columbia Undergraduate Law Review

Public Funds, Private Schools: The Constitutional Question of Vouchers

In 2024, in Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond (2025), the Supreme Court struck down Oklahoma’s plans to create a virtual Catholic charter school, citing it as an unconstitutional use of government funding for religious purposes. Yet, the same Court has allowed states to fund the same outcome—religious education—through school voucher programs. School vouchers are government-funded grants that parents can use to “send their kids to the school of their choice, even private, religiously affiliated schools.” This funding is typically set aside for low-income families, children with disabilities, or families zoned to a failing school system to find alternative school funding. Although these vouchers appear to offer benefits on the surface, they have negative constitutional implications; their foundations pose a threat not only to the Constitution but also to public education funding.

Teniola AdedireDecember 6, 2025Education Policy, Constitutional Law, Establishment Clause

Gatekeeping the Classroom: How Tennessee’s SB 0836 Threatens Equal Education for Undocumented Students

In 2025, although the second Trump administration made it clear that immigration enforcement would undergo stricter and more expansive measures, many underestimated the extent of the changes. By the end of January, videos and photos of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents taking alleged illegal immigrants into unmarked cars made their way into thousands of communities, spreading fear. The second Trump administration's new focus on the deportations of immigrants integrated into thousands of communities within the U.S. laid the groundwork for states that agreed with the President’s policy focus to put out bills and laws that aggressively targeted illegal immigrants in their state. In New Jersey, State Representative Paul Kanitra introduced bill A5233, otherwise known as the PLYLER Act, which aims to revise public school enrollment policies by imposing a tuition on all undocumented students. This bill asserts that education is not a constitutional right and that states should have the authority to control who qualifies for taxpayer-funded schools. Bill A5233 was referred to the New Jersey State Assembly Education Committee and remains pending in the early stages of the legislative process.

Alejandra RamseyAugust 17, 2025Undocumented students, Immigration law, Education Policy, Tennessee State Bill 0836, Immigrant rights, Equal Protection Clause