the problem, the legislature began the Pilot Project Scholarship Program, which provided tuition aid vouchers in the amount of $2250 a year to some parents of students in the Cleveland City School District. This aid was to be used by the parents to enroll their students in participating private and religious schools in the district and the neighboring suburbs, as well as public schools that were meeting district goals. Those parents that participated were given tuition aid for their student and it was up to the parent to decide where they would enroll their children. During the 1999-2000 school year, 82 percent of the private schools that were participating in the program had a religious affiliation. 96 percent of the students that participated in the program attended a religiously affiliated school.
In 2002, opponents to the program, a group of Ohio taxpayers, filed a lawsuit on the grounds that the program violated the Establishment Clause. The case, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, reached the Supreme Court and it was determined by a 5-4 vote that school choice and the educational voucher program in Ohio did not violate the Establishment Clause. The Court developed a five part test titled the Private Choice Test to determine a voucher program’s constitutionality. In order for a voucher program to be constitutional it must meet the following criteria:
1. The program must have a valid secular purpose.
2. Aid must go to parents and not to the school.
3. A broad class of beneficiaries must be covered.
4. The program must be neutral with respect to religion, and
5. There must be adequate nonreligious options.

The Court established that the Ohio program met the five part test due to the following reasons. First, the program provided educational assistance to poor children in failing schools. Second, the vouchers were given directly to the parents. Third, the vouchers were available to all of the students in the failing school. Fo...