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South Dakota
Vouchers
Compelled Support Clause
“[N]o person shall be compelled to attend or support any ministry or place of
worship against his consent nor shall any preference be given by law to any
religious establishment or mode of worship.” South Dakota Const. Art. VI, § 3.
Blaine Amendments
“No money or property of the state shall be given or appropriated for the benefit of
any sectarian or religious society or institution.” South Dakota Const. Art. VI, § 3.
“No appropriation of lands, money or other property or credits to aid any
sectarian school shall ever be made by the state, or any county or municipality
within the state, nor shall the state or any county or municipality within the state
accept any grant, conveyance, gift or bequest of lands, money or other property
to be used for sectarian purposes, and no sectarian instruction shall be allowed
in any school or institution aided or supported by the state.” South Dakota
Const. Art. VIII, § 16.
Tax Credits
EXISTING SCHOOL CHOICE PROGRAMS
Yes
Public School Choice: Intradistrict and Interdistrict/mandatory
South Dakota Codified Laws Sections 13-2830 to 13-28-49
Interdistrict/mandatory
South Dakota Codified Laws Sections 13-2821 to 13-28-23
Charter Schools: No
Private School Choice: No
Other Relevant Provision
“Notwithstanding the provisions of section 3, Article VI and section 16, Article
VIII, the Legislature may authorize the loaning of nonsectarian textbooks to all
children of school age.” South Dakota Const. Art. VIII, § 20.
This provision was added to the South Dakota Constitution in 1986, and specifically negates
the results in the Elbe and McDonald cases.
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RELEVANT CASE LAW
Elbe v. Yankton Independent School District, 372
N.W.2d 113 (S.D. 1985)
The South Dakota Supreme Court held
that South Dakota’s textbook loan program
was a violation of South Dakota’s Blaine
Amendments and declined to overturn a
similar earlier ruling in McDonald.
In re N. C. B. Careers, 298 N.W.2d 526 (S.D.
1980)
The South Dakota Supreme Court held that
tax exemptions for religious institutions
are not the functional equivalent of
appropriations and therefore do not violate
South Dakota’s Blaine Amendments. Merely
relieving the church of an obligation to
support the state is not the same thing as the
state supporting the church.
McDonald v. School Board, 246 N.W.2d 93 (S.D.
1976)
In holding that a textbook loan program was
unconstitutional, the South Dakota Supreme
South Dakota
Vouchers
Tax Credits
continued from previous page
Court concluded that South Dakota’s Blaine
Amendments were intended to prohibit in
every form, whether as a gift or otherwise,
the appropriation of the public funds for the
benefit of or to aid any sectarian school or
institution.
South Dakota High School Interscholastic
Activities Association v. St. Mary’s Inter-Parochial
High School, 141 N.W.2d 477 (S.D. 1966)
In holding that private schools can join
a public high school athletic association
and play on public school fields, the South
Dakota Supreme Court reasoned that the
state’s Compelled Support Clause and
Blaine Amendments were not intended to
permit government discrimination against
its citizens based on religion.
State ex rel. Finger v. Weedman, 226 N.W. 348
(S.D. 1929)
The South Dakota Supreme Court held
that the state school board may not compel
students to read from the King James Bible
because doing so violates religious freedom
established by federal and South Dakota
constitutions.
Synod of Dakota v. State, 50 N.W. 632 (S.D. 1891)
The South Dakota Supreme Court held
that the state was not obligated to pay
for educational services provided by a
religious school because doing so would
violate South Dakota’s Blaine Amendments. The court provided a detailed analysis
of what it means to “benefit” or “aid” a
sectarian institution and explicitly rejected
a distinction between aiding students and
aiding schools.
1992 Opinion Attorney General S.D. 69, Op. No.
92-04 South Dakota Attorney General opined that
any statute requiring the transportation of
private school students on public school
buses would violate South Dakota’s Blaine
Amendments because the benefits received
by the private schools would be more than
“incidental.”
A tax credit program is the best school choice option for South Dakota
given the restrictive interpretation of the state’s religion clauses. The
South Dakota Supreme Court has explicitly rejected the distinction
between aiding students and aiding the schools they choose to attend. Although Article VIII, Section 20 was later enacted to authorize
textbook loans to private school students, the South Dakota Supreme
Court cases that prompted the amendment are still good law outside
the context of textbook loan programs.
Model Legislation: Great Schools Tax Credit Program, Family Education Tax
Credit Program
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