The Supreme Court will soon weigh in on school choice and religious freedom.

It just agreed to hear a potential landmark case, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, next term. The legal question before the court will be whether Montana’s state government can bar religious options from eligibility in student financial aid programs. A favorable decision could free more states to pursue school choice programs, unshackled by discriminatory laws — so-called ‘Blaine Amendments’ — that have deep anti-Catholic roots. This would open the door for more states to replicate successful private school tuition voucher programs, like the one we have here in Wisconsin.

Kendra Espinoza , the chief plaintiff in the case, is a single mother who would like to use Montana’s Tax Credit Scholarship Program to send her two daughters to a private religious school. The program gives residents a tax credit for donating their money to a private scholarship program, which low-income families can then use to attend private schools. But the Montana Department of Revenue refused to allow students to attend religious schools with the scholarship.

In April 2018, the libertarian-leaning law firm the Institute for Justice represented Espinoza and two other mothers before the Montana Supreme Court, arguing that they should be able to use the scholarship program to send their children to religious schools. But the Montana Supreme Court ruled against the families.

It justified this decision based on an archaic Blaine Amendment which prevents state tax dollars from going to schools controlled by a “church, sect, or denomination.” Blaine Amendments are found in 37 states and were originally crafted to keep the government from funding Catholic schools. And, bizarrely, the court looked to these provisions even though the scholarship is privately funded.

The Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case today could not only protect the right of families in Montana to exercise their religious liberty, but as stated in the Institute for Justice’s petition , could affect families in other states.

That’s why in Espinoza, attorneys at the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, where we both work, filed a brief on behalf of former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to the Supreme Court. As explained by Walker, “Despite opposition from the special interest groups, school choice is working in Wisconsin—if the Supreme Court gives Montana and other states the opportunity, I am confident it will work there too.”

Through the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program , parents utilize a taxpayer-funded voucher to send their children to a private school of their choosing. Founded in 1990, the MPCP began with just a few hundred students and has since grown to over 28,000 who qualify due to their family’s income being at or below 300% of the poverty level.

Since the MPCP’s inception, studies have shown that students are more likely to succeed in the program than they are in traditional Milwaukee Public Schools. Our latest analysis shows that is still the case, with schools in the choice program scoring, on average, 4% higher than those in the public system in math and 5% higher in reading.

Religious private schools are the driving forces behind these successes. Controlling for socioeconomic factors, Catholic schools in the choice program have an 8.9% higher proficiency rate in English and 4.1% higher proficiency rate in math than comparable public schools. Participating Lutheran schools also outperform Montana public schools. Yet all this is only possible due to a 1998 Montana Supreme Court decision, Jackson v. Benson, that declared that it was not a violation of the state constitution for parents to use school vouchers at religious schools.

The successes of private religious choice schools like the ones in Milwaukee has education reformers across the country are excited about the Supreme Court’s decision to take the Espinoza case. Espinoza and other parents nationwide will get their day in court. And if the Supreme Court makes the right decision, students across the country might finally get access to the education they deserve.

CJ Szafir is executive vice president and Cori Petersen is a writer and research associate at the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty.