Date of Award
Spring 1972
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Education
First Advisor
Steeves, Frank L.
Second Advisor
De Roche, E. F.
Abstract
The Pennsylvania Nonpublic Elementary and Secondary Education Act was signed into law on June 19, 1966. It authorized the Superintendent of Public Instruction to enter into contracts to purchase from nonpublic schools in the Commonwealth educational services in the form of teachers' salaries, textbooks, and instructional materials for the defined secular subjects: mathematics, modern foreign languages, physical science, and physical education. This was a pioneering piece of legislation. The Commonwealth, of Pennsylvania became the first among the fifty states to provide financial assistance under the principle of purchase of educational services to its resident students in nonpublic schools. It was the aim of this dissertation to trace the history of this pioneering endeavor through its legislative enactment, its implementation, and its judicial review both by the United States District Court of Eastern Pennsylvania and by the Supreme Court of the United States.