State Department of Education & Early Development v. Alexander

Parents of students enrolled in public schools sued the state, arguing that statutes permitting local school districts to operate correspondence study programs as alternative to traditional schooling and authorizing allotments of public funds to correspondence study students to purchase nonsectarian educational services and materials from public, private, or religious organizations violated the state constitutional prohibition on using public funds for the direct benefit of religious or private educational institutions. Held that the statutes were not facially unconstitutional, and that the supreme court would decline to decide whether using allotment funds to pay private school tuition was constitutional.