Esteban Morales, 11, works on reading comprehension at Turning Point School, where about half the private school's students, including Esteban, rely on vouchers. The state Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday on the legality of sending state dollars to private schools to educate special-needs students.

Greg Bryan / Arizona Daily Star

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For Guy Dobbins, the symbol of the ongoing battle for private-school vouchers comes down to a baseball cap.

Devon, the youngest of his four daughters, was diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder in elementary school.

The family tried everything from specialized summer school and private tutoring to holistic remedies and dietary testing. Then they learned the state was offering scholarships to special-needs students to go to the school of their choice, even private schools.

They jumped at the chance to take her to a secular private school with small classes devoted wholly to students with learning disabilities. Now in the sixth grade at Turning Point School, she's catching up, and her standardized test scores are climbing.

"She used to wear her baseball cap pulled down over her eyes, like she was hiding," said Dobbins, a 50-year-old software consultant. "Now she doesn't even wear it anymore."

Devon is among 225 students statewide with special needs whose scholastic fates will be determined by the Arizona Supreme Court, which will hear arguments Tuesday about whether it's legal to send state dollars to private schools to educate special-needs and displaced foster children.

The issue has pitted those who say they're on the side of families who can't get the specialized help they need from public schools against a consortium of a dozen educational agencies who contend this is just a first step to a wholesale voucher program that will bleed resources from the already financially strapped public- school system.

"Voucher proponents have said that if these are upheld, new and additional voucher programs will be introduced each time the Legislature comes into session," warned John Wright, president of the Arizona Education Association, which represents teachers and other school staffers across the state. "This is not paranoia to see this as the proverbial camel's nose under the tent."

Twenty-two of the 41 students enrolled at the secular, private Turning Point School are there on vouchers.

Founder Nancy Von Wald, who grew up with a learning disability and now runs the school to serve just that population, said she's getting $3,821 from the state per student. Her tuition is $6,500, so she writes a lot of grants and writes off the rest when families can't pay, which she says is often.

The school has a specialized curriculum. There's little time for social studies, very little science. The students work for three hours every day on reading and writing, with 90 minutes each day in math. Von Wald's goal is to have the students ready for traditional public high school when they graduate from her eighth grade.

"I like to say our students are not learning-disabled, but teaching-disabled," she said, adding many of her students come to her frustrated because they weren't able to make progress in the traditional public system.

If the vouchers go away, she said, many parents won't be able to keep paying the tuition.

The state and the Arizona chapter of the Institute for Justice, which intervened on behalf of the families, are squaring off against the educational establishment. So far, the two sides have split the decisions. A trial court sided with the backers of the law, but an appellate court deemed it unconstitutional.

Tim Keller, executive director of the institute, said he plans to argue that the program is neutral on religion.

"We need to recognize that there's a distinction between programs that are designed to help families and programs designed to help private schools. These programs were designed to help particularly vulnerable families, and these programs are changing lives."

With President-elect Barack Obama selecting a private school for his own daughters, Keller said it's clear that private schools could be an option for many families. "That's terrific that his family has the means to choose the school that best fits his girls' needs, but not everyone has that ability because of their income levels."

Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, who supports parental choice, said the state on occasion already sends public dollars to private schools. The state is required to provide a free and appropriate education for all students, but on occasion, when districts determine they can't meet the requirements of special-needs students, they contract with other schools, including private ones.

"I know some of the parents whose children are taking advantage of the assistance," Horne said, "and they're telling me their children are being better served."

Chris Thomas, the director of legal services for the Arizona School Boards Association, however, argues that unlike the current law, there are built-in protections for the taxpayers in those outside-contracting cases.

"Public accountability doesn't go out the window with a private placement," he said, adding the sponsoring district is still responsible for ensuring the students are tested and that parents can help guide instructional practice. This law, he said, provides no transparency.

"Believe me, this is not about feeling stingy with regard to these particular students and these particular families," Thomas said. "We do think our public schools do a good job. And the proponents chose a very defined program with a sympathetic group to set the legal precedent for a larger program, and that's why we decided to take a zero-tolerance approach to vouchers."

Thomas said that if the law does pass constitutional muster, educational groups have a backup. "We'll go to the ballot," he said. "Every time vouchers are put up for a public vote, they go down, because the public understands that they do drain money from the public system."

Dena Vettor, a 49-year-old occupational therapist, is anxiously awaiting the court's decision.

Vettor doesn't blame the teachers, but they didn't seem to know how to help her sixth-grade daughter, Michaela, with her dyslexia. She was falling behind in language arts, but also failing math because she couldn't read the directions. At one point, the class would do academic work while Michaela drew pictures.

A single mother of two, Vettor found Turning Point but feared she couldn't afford it. Then she learned about the scholarship. In just 18 months, her daughter has made huge gains. "She can read now. She still struggles with some concepts, but her functional everyday reading is incredible. She writes cursive now. I'm just so grateful to them."

If the scholarships go away, she said, she'll have to come up with something. "We'll eat rice, beans, potatoes, whatever, every day. We'll figure something out because I owe it to her. She can't go into the world not knowing how to read."

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