A Colorado Christian school has sued state officials for requiring them to abandon their religious beliefs in order to participate in a universal preschool program, which conveys the message to families that they "cannot be religious" to receive equal opportunities, an attorney representing the school told Fox News Digital.
"It says to the families that they're second-class citizens and that their religious beliefs aren't important," senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom Jeremiah Galus said. "It's the type of message that is not just wrong, it's unconstitutional."
Darren Patterson Christian Academy, a faith-based school in Buena Vista, Colorado, applied and was approved for the state's new universal preschool program set to go into effect July 1, which guaranteed every four-year-old in the state at least 15 hours per week of state-funded preschool services for the upcoming school year. However, The Colorado Department of Early Education mandated that for a school to participate and receive state funding, the school can't hire employees based on the school’s religious beliefs, according to the Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal advocacy group committed to protecting the First Amendment and representing DPCA in their lawsuit.
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"The state of Colorado is conditioning participation in this program, which was designed for everybody, all families, all children, all eligible preschools," Galus said.
The state's early education department, which has encouraged all preschools to participate, included two discrimination clauses in the bill's provisions prohibiting any participants from discriminating "against any person on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, citizenship status, education, disability, socio-economic status, or any other identity."
The program does not ban Christian schools or any religious schools from participating. But ADF said the DPCA's faith-based values are central to its policies and practices, including their hiring and employment decisions, and the provisions would negatively impact their internal structure.
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"Darren Patterson hires religious teachers to fulfill its Christian mission to advance its Christian messages," Galus said. "And for the state of Colorado to say you have to give that up to participate in a universal program that everyone else is eligible for is for the state of Colorado to tell the school and to tell those parents that you cannot be religious."
DPCA and other faith-based schools requested a religious exemption after learning of the required provisions to participate in the free preschool program, but the state's early education department denied the request. The Christian school filed a religious discrimination lawsuit on Tuesday against Colorado state officials for allegedly forcing the school to "surrender its religious character, beliefs, and exercise in order to participate" in the state's universal preschool program.
"It's really hard to understand why Colorado is doing this," Galus said. "The Supreme Court has made very clear in three Supreme Court decisions from 2017 until 2022 … where they've explained that the government cannot exclude religious organizations from generally available government benefit programs. Yet that's exactly what's happening here."
In 2022, for example, Maine banned families from using funds from a state tuition program, designed for kids without access to a local public school, at private religious schools. The Supreme Court ruled in Carson vs. Makin that government programs can't exclude students who attend a religious school from a government program if they are otherwise qualified.
"What is at stake here is that the government is saying we get to decide," Galus said. "We get to decide who Darren Patterson Christian Academy chooses as its teachers. We get to decide the type of education that they provide."
"That should scare every American if something like that is allowed to be upheld," he said.
To watch Galus' full interview, click here.
