In what President Bush hailed as a "landmark ruling," the Supreme Court Thursday ruled that a school voucher program in Cleveland does not infringe upon the constitutional separation of church and state.
The trip is Bush's seventh to politically influential Ohio since taking office. He was last in the state on June 14 to deliver the commencement speech at Ohio State University.
Under the Cleveland voucher program, parents may spend the money they receive at private academies, church-run schools or at suburban public schools with better academic credentials. In practice, however, more than 95 percent of the participating schools are church-affiliated.
After returning to Washington later Monday, Bush is to fly to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday to discuss overhauling the welfare system. He will be accompanied by Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, who won a reputation as a welfare reform pioneer while governor of Wisconsin.
In Milwaukee, Bush plans to promote the involvement of religious groups in welfare programs, welfare-to-work programs and programs encouraging greater home ownership, especially among minorities.
The trip will be Bush's sixth in 18 months to Wisconsin, which he lost narrowly in the 2000 election to Democrat Al Gore.
The president will celebrate the Fourth of July in the courthouse square of Ripley, West Virginia, at a ceremony honoring America's veterans. Ripley, 35 miles north of Charleston, has a population of about 3,200.
Some 15,000 to 20,000 people usually attend Ripley's Independence Day festivities. The visit is Bush's fourth to West Virginia since his election, in which he won the traditionally Democratic state.