Parents urge Supreme Court to protect religious education

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(The Center Square) – Three California families are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review whether parents have the right to use state education funds for religious-based curriculum. 

The Liberty Justice Center filed an amicus brief in Woolard v. Thurmond urging the justices to hear the case, which challenges the California Department of Education's policies governing instructional materials available through charter school programs.

According to the center, the charter programs prohibit families from using the funds to purchase educational materials from faith-based organizations, even when the materials meet state educational standards.

The families sued in October 2023, arguing that denying them access to a state benefit because of their religious viewpoint violates the First Amendment.

The Liberty Justice Center argued that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling conflicts with Supreme Court precedent protecting religious organizations and individuals from discrimination when they participate in generally available government benefit programs.

Katie Cosgrove, counsel for the Liberty Justice Center’s PARENTS Initiative, told The Center Square that the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit applied a test in its appeal that she argued is unsupported by constitutional law and inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent. 

“It becomes not only discriminatory against religious families, but really discriminatory against low-income families,” Cosgrove told The Center Square. “So what this is doing is it's mostly impacting families that don't have access to the thousand dollars a year, whatever it costs to receive your homeschool Christian curriculum, who are trying to go through the charter school program and the doors are being closed on them.” 

The brief argued that families should not lose access to these educational funds because they choose religious instructional materials.

“The First Amendment does not permit the government to open an education benefit to everyone except families who want to practice their religious faith. Yet, that is exactly what the Ninth Circuit has allowed California to do when it excludes religious curriculum from its charter-supported homeschooling program,” the brief stated. 

The Liberty Justice Center also argues that state oversight of an educational program should not give the government additional authority to restrict private religious instruction.

“A regulator’s role as homework grader does not give the state greater power to burden private religious exercise,” the brief stated.

“Nothing in the Free Exercise Clause or the Establishment Clause permits the State to exclude private religious instruction merely because a government employee supervises the program," said the brief, referring to the First Amendment's sections on religion.

Cosgrove told The Center Square that the dispute extends beyond religious curriculum and concerns the role parents play in directing their children's education.

“This is part of a much larger issue of the state trying to push parents out of the education of their children, trying to preclude parents from making decisions for their children based on their own religious beliefs or even non-religious parents who just want to be involved in their children's lives and education,” Cosgrove told The Center Square. 

“The Supreme Court and the federal government can only do so much. And we can hope and pray that California will get it back together and start following the law,” Cosgrove added. 

The Center Square reached out to the California Department of Education and the National Constitution Center for a comment but did not receive a response.