A federal court ruled on Wednesday that the state of Colorado discriminated against Catholic preschools by excluding them from the state’s school voucher program due to their faith-based admission criteria. St. Mary’s Catholic Parish and St. Bernadette’s Catholic Parish filed the lawsuit in August 2023 after the state denied their applications to the universal preschool program. This was due to their policy of considering religious beliefs when deciding on student admissions.
Judge John Kane Jr. of the District Court of Colorado concluded that the state had made a mistake in allowing faith-based providers to receive exemptions in similar circumstances but not for the preschool. He declared that by doing so, Colorado had violated the plaintiffs’ rights to free exercise.
The backdrop to the lawsuit is Colorado’s Department of Early Childhood’s 2022 establishment of a universal preschool program, which offered 15 hours of free preschool weekly to private, public, and faith-based schools. However, they denied the applications from St. Mary’s and St. Bernadette’s because the schools asked parents about their religious beliefs. The state argued that this practice denied families an equal opportunity to attend the schools, making them ineligible for a state-funded program.
Judge Kane refuted this argument, noting that Colorado regularly allows other religious schools and institutions to receive exemptions and therefore ‘discriminate’ due to their faith. He concluded that there was a violation in not providing a similar exemption to the plaintiff preschools.