The issue of critical race theory was raised during a Supreme Court oral argument on Dec. 8, when Justice Samuel Alito asked the lawyer defending the state of Maine if the state’s tuition assistance program, which excludes Christian high schools, can also deny participation of schools promulgating beliefs that are clearly against the purpose of public education.
The argument being heard by the high court centers around a system that Maine uses to ensure that all children in the state have free access to K–12 education. Under the system, a public school district that doesn’t have its own secondary school may either contract with a private secondary school or pay the tuition of the private school of a student’s choice. In either case, the participating private school must be “nonsectarian,” meaning that it can’t provide religious instruction.
