Christian school sues Maine over law deterring religious schools from school choice program

CNA Staff, Sep 11, 2024 / 16:11 pm

A Christian school on Sept. 3 filed an appeal against Maine for attempting to dodge a U.S. Supreme Court ruling by passing a “poison pill” law that prevents Christian schools from participating in the state’s school choice program. 

First Liberty Institute and Consovoy McCarthy PLLC, on behalf of Crosspoint Church, which operates Bangor Christian Schools, asked the U.S Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to reverse a lower court decision. The decision upheld a Maine law, which the lawsuit calls a “poison pill” that effectively prevents religious schools from participating in the school choice program because of their beliefs. 

Crosspoint Church is a nondenominational Christian church in Bangor that runs Bangor Christian Schools (BCS), a preschool–12 religious school.

Maine’s school choice tuitioning program — the second-oldest school choice program in the nation — allows families in rural districts with no public secondary schools to send their children to a public or private school of their choice. However, families could not use the tuition benefit at religious schools beginning in the 1980s after Maine required schools to be “nonsectarian” to participate in the program. 

This requirement was overturned in the 2022 Supreme Court decision Carson v. Makin, which ruled that it was discriminatory toward religious schools. 

But before the decision, Maine changed the law to require BCS to go against its religious beliefs to participate in the program.

“This ‘poison pill’ is designed to deter religious schools from participating and thus perpetuates the religious discrimination at the heart of the state’s prior sectarian exclusion,” the lawsuit reads. “From the start, Maine’s attorney general and the then-speaker of the House of Representatives admitted this scheme was intentional.”

Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey called the Supreme Court decision “disturbing” in a 2022 press release, saying he intended to “ensure that public money is not used to promote discrimination, intolerance, and bigotry.”

“Public education should expose children to a variety of viewpoints, promote tolerance and understanding, and prepare children for life in a diverse society,” Frey noted, saying that the religious private schools protected by the decision were detrimental to a public education. 

“They promote a single religion to the exclusion of all others, refuse to admit gay and transgender children, and openly discriminate in hiring teachers and staff. One school teaches children that the husband is to be the leader of the household,” he added.

The recent appeal notes that “the state did not enforce the sectarian exclusion to exclude all religious schools. Instead, the education commissioner administered the sectarian exclusion to exclude only certain religious schools, depending on their religious beliefs.” 

“Families should be free to choose the educational option that works best for them without the state’s unconstitutional interference,” said Camille Varone, associate counsel for First Liberty Institute, in a Sept. 3 press release.

“Maine excluded religious schools from its school choice program for over 40 years, but the U.S. Supreme Court made it clear that such religious discrimination must end,” she said.