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New Jersey
Vouchers
Tax Credits
EXISTING SCHOOL CHOICE PROGRAMS
Compelled Support Clause
“[N]or shall any person be obliged to pay tithes, taxes, or other rates for building or
repairing any church or churches, place or places of worship, or for the maintenance
of any minister or ministry, contrary to what he believes to be right or has
deliberately and voluntarily engaged to perform.” New Jersey Const. Art. I, ¶ 3.
Education Provisions
“The Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and
efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all the children in the State
between the ages of five and eighteen years.” New Jersey Const. Art. VIII, § IV, ¶ 1.
“The fund for the support of free public schools … shall be securely invested, and
remain a perpetual fund; and the income thereof, except so much as it may be judged
expedient to apply to an increase of the capital, shall be annually appropriated to the
support of free public schools, and for the equal benefit of all the people of the State;
and it shall not be competent, except as hereinafter provided, for the Legislature to
borrow, appropriate or use the said fund or any part thereof for any other purpose,
under any pretense whatever.” New Jersey Const. Art. VIII, § IV, ¶ 2.
Public School Choice: Yes
Interdistrict/voluntary
New Jersey Statutes Sections 18A:36B-1 to
18A:36B-13, 18A:38-3
Charter Schools: Yes
New Jersey Statutes Section 18A:36A
Private School Choice: Yes
As mandated by Abbott v. Burke, the New
Jersey Commissioner of Education must
provide vouchers for pre-school programs
for all three- and four-year olds, who may
attend public or private programs.
RELEVANT CASE LAW
Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1 (1947)
The U.S. Supreme Court held that the First Amendment
does not prohibit New Jersey from spending public
funds to pay the bus fares of parochial school pupils as a
part of a general program under which it paid the fares
of students attending public schools.
Resnick v. East Brunswick Township Board of Education, 389
A.2d 944 (N.J. 1978)
The New Jersey Supreme Court held that the state
could allow religious groups that fully reimbursed
school boards for related out-of-pocket expenses to
use school facilities on a temporary basis for religious
services without violating the federal or New Jersey
constitutions.
Clayton v. Kervick, 285 A.2d 11 (N.J. 1971)
Applying federal Establishment Clause precedent, the
New Jersey Supreme Court held that supplying public
funds for the construction of dorms at private colleges
passes constitutional scrutiny as long as the buildings are
not used for religious instruction and the school does not
discriminate on the basis of religion in its admissions.
Everson v. Board of Education, 44 A.2d 333, 337 (N.J. 1945)
New Jersey’s highest court held that the transportation
of private school students at public expense was
designed to help parents comply with mandatory
attendance laws, which is a public purpose, and
therefore does not violate the New Jersey Constitution.
Both tax credit programs and vouchers are school choice
options for New Jersey. Its Constitution does not contain a
Blaine Amendment, and its Compelled Support Clause, while
receiving little judicial attention, does not appear to preclude
the use of funds other than those allotted for the public
schools to support educational vouchers.
Model Legislation: Parental Choice Scholarship Program (Universal
Eligibility), Parental Choice Scholarship Program (Means-Tested
Eligibility), Special Needs Scholarship Program, Foster Child
Scholarship Program, Autism Scholarship, Great Schools Tax Credit
Program, Family Education Tax Credit Program