‘State wants to have bureaucrats tell St. Dominic how Catholic it can be’
By Bob Unruh
It was none other than the U.S. Supreme Court that a few years ago struck down a state program in Maine that attacked religious schools.
The state had said a program to provide tuition to students in locations where there were not public schools, so they could be at private schools, excluded any institution linked to faith.
But when that ruling came down, the state simply adopted another law to accomplish the same discrimination through another method, and now that fight is pending before the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“Three years ago in the Carson case, the Supreme Court ordered Maine to stop leaving families like the Radonises out in the cold,” said Adèle Keim, senior counsel at Becket. “But Maine wouldn’t listen.
“Now Maine wants to have bureaucrats in Augusta tell St. Dominic how Catholic it can be. Maine should drop its newest effort to ‘end run’ the Supreme Court and let St. Dominic get back to serving the Maine families that need it most.”
Explained Becket, “The Radonis family and a Catholic school in Maine were in federal appeals court today challenging a state law that excludes most faith-based schools from serving rural families through the state’s tuition assistance program. Even though the Supreme Court struck down Maine’s religious ban in 2022, state officials continue to exclude faith-based schools and families who want to participate in the program. In St. Dominic Academy v. Makin, Becket argued on behalf of the Radonises and St. Dominic Academy to restore their ability to access state funding.”
Becket noted Keith and Valori Radonis are Catholic parents in rural Maine “who live in an area without a public high school and want their children to attend a school that upholds their beliefs.”
They chose St. Dominic Academy.
Another family involved in the case, Daniel and Nancy Cronin, also live in an area without a public high school and want their son, who has dyslexia, to attend St. Dominic so that he can receive the academic support he needs, the legal team explained.