The Supreme Court of Nevada [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Thursday that the funding provision of the state’s Education Saving Account (ESA) [official website] program is unconstitutional under the Nevada Constitution [text]. In its opinion the court did not address the merit of the program as a whole, but effectively halted implementation until the financial issue can be resolved. The system would enable parents to access up to $5,000 in funds that would have otherwise been distributed to their child’s public education, and put it toward private education and other academic expenses. The court took issue with the fact that the current plan for ESA funding was to draw money from resources allocated for public education and that the ESA did not have its own source separate from the amount budgeted for public education, nor was it included in that budget.

Education funding has led to numerous legal challenges across the US. Earlier this month the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that Governor Matt Bevin did not have the authority to unilaterally cut the budget [JURIST report] for state universities. In 2015 the Supreme Court of Washington ordered [JURIST report] the state to pay a fine of $100,000 per day for each day that it fails to comply with a previous court ruling mandating adequate funding of public schools. Also in August of that year the US Senate passed a bill [JURIST report] to revamp the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act.