Justices Rule Public Teachers Can’t Work in Religious Schools

The Supreme Court, in a pair of decisions reinforcing the wall separating church and state, ruled today that having public schoolteachers give special classes at religious schools is unconstitutional.

The rulings, both 5-4 divisions of the justices, are the latest in a series of high court decisions on the politically controversial subject, and in each case represented a defeat for the Reagan Administration.

One case involved programs in Grand Rapids, Mich., that send public schoolteachers into private schools for remedial and enrichment classes. The other concerned the use of federal funds to provide remedial instruction to disadvantaged youngsters who attend religious schools in New York City.

A Hazy Line

Writing for the majority in the Grand Rapids case, Justice William J. Brennan Jr. said the programs overstepped the hazy constitutional line between allowable governmental accommodation of religion and direct financial aid.

In the New York case, the majority held that although the federal Title I program promotes worthy goals, the sending of public teachers to private schools raises the specter of governmental involvement with religion.

The twin rulings were at odds with the views of the Reagan Administration, which argued in both cases that outlawing public money in religious schools could hinder the education of students in low-income areas.

‘Shared Time’ Program

Under Grand Rapids’ “shared time” program, the public school system leased classrooms in religious schools for up to $10 a week to offer classes in math, reading, physical education, languages and art.

The classes were attended solely by private students, but taught by public teachers during the regular school day. The instructors were required to post “public school” signs on the wall and to remove or cover any religious symbols during the class period.

A separate “community education” program involved private schoolteachers who taught leisure activities, such as arts and crafts, on religious school property after regular school hours.

Joining Brennan in the opinion striking down the shared time program were Justices Thurgood Marshall, Harry A. Blackmun, Lewis F. Powell Jr. and John Paul Stevens. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Byron R. White and William H. Rehnquist dissented.

Ruling for ‘Feeble Minded’

In another major case today, the justices struck down a Texas ordinance that excluded homes for the “feeble minded” from areas zoned for apartment living, but refused to carve out a special constitutional niche for the retarded.

The justices, in a 6-3 ruling, said the ordinance “appears to rest on an irrational prejudice against the mentally retarded.”

The ruling, while a victory for handicapped advocacy groups, did not extend the same constitutional safeguards previously granted to blacks and women.

Justice White said the “mentally retarded, like others, have and retain their substantive constitutional rights in addition to the right to be treated equally by the law.”

However, White said the retarded already have protection under federal and state law from discrimination and if they were made a special class, other similar groups such as the “aging, disabled, the mentally ill and infirm” could require the same treatment.