ABSTRACT
Controversy over aid to religiously affiliated schools has a long, complicated history, riddled as it is with issues dealing with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The Court first addressed the question of aid to parochial schools in the 1947 case of Everson v. Board of Education, 330 US. 1. Ewing Township, New Jersey, had no public school but did pay to transport its children to schools in surrounding towns. These schools included both public and parochial institutions. In Board of Education v. Allen, 392 US. 236, a six-three majority of the Court upheld as constitutional the "loan" of secular textbooks by public schools to students in parochial schools on the grounds that the loans promoted secular education. The Court has held many forms of support for religious schools to be constitutional. The future of aid to parochial schools remains uncertain for several reasons.
