{"id":33293,"date":"2026-11-02T12:25:53","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T17:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=33293"},"modified":"2026-11-02T12:25:53","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T17:25:53","slug":"christian-family-fights-back-after-vermont-cuts-funding-for-faith-based-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/11\/christian-family-fights-back-after-vermont-cuts-funding-for-faith-based-schools","title":{"rendered":"Christian Family Fights Back After Vermont Cuts Funding For Faith-Based Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Christian family in Vermont is taking state education officials to federal court, arguing that a new law unfairly prevents families from using taxpayer-funded tuition assistance to send their children to religious schools.<\/p>\n

The Bishop family filed a lawsuit<\/a> in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont, claiming the state’s revised education policies violate their First Amendment rights by effectively excluding religious schools from public tuition programs.<\/p>\n

The family, who identify as nondenominational Christians, live in North Chittenden, where their local school district does not operate a high school. Under Vermont’s Town Tuition Program, families in such districts can receive public funding to send their children to eligible schools elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Their daughter, identified in court documents as A.B., is a senior at Mount St. Joseph Academy, a Catholic high school in Rutland.<\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit, the family previously received public tuition assistance but lost access to the funding after Vermont enacted Act 73, a sweeping education reform law signed by Republican Gov. Phil Scott in July 2025.<\/p>\n

The law introduced new eligibility requirements for independent schools, including enrollment thresholds, geographic restrictions and minimum class sizes.<\/p>\n

Although the requirements do not explicitly mention religion, the changes reportedly disqualified all 12 religious schools that previously received public tuition funding. Some secular private schools also lost eligibility.<\/p>\n

The Bishops argue that the law’s practical effect is to discriminate against families choosing faith-based education.<\/p>\n

Their daughter initially qualified for a provision allowing students already receiving tuition assistance to continue until graduation. However, after briefly transferring to Rutland High School in the fall of 2025 to pursue vocational coursework, she was denied funding upon returning to Mount St. Joseph.<\/p>\n

The family is now paying her tuition out of pocket.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit also challenges the impact on Vermont’s Dual Enrollment Program, which allows eligible high school juniors and seniors to take college courses without paying tuition. Private school students must receive town tuition to qualify.<\/p>\n

The Bishops are represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, a religious liberty legal organization that has successfully argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

“Parents should be able to send their children to schools that are the best fit for them, and the First Amendment protects parents’ right to choose religious schools,” said<\/a> ADF Legal Counsel Jake Reed.<\/p>\n

“Yet after decades and multiple court rulings protecting religious freedom, Vermont continues to discriminate against religious families and schools,” he added.<\/p>\n

The dispute follows years of legal battles over Vermont’s education funding policies.<\/p>\n

In 2022, the state agreed to allow religious schools to participate<\/a> in its tuition program following litigation and the Supreme Court’s decision in Carson v. Makin, which ruled that Maine could not exclude otherwise eligible religious schools from a public tuition assistance program solely because of their religious character.<\/p>\n

However, Vermont’s latest law presents a different legal question.<\/p>\n

Peter Teachout, a professor at Vermont Law School, previously told VTDigger that Act 73 appears religiously neutral on its face. He explained that challengers would need to demonstrate that the new requirements were intentionally designed to exclude religious schools.<\/p>\n

The Bishops are asking the federal court to intervene so that their daughter can access tuition assistance and dual-enrollment benefits during her final year of high school.<\/p>\n

The case could help determine how far states can go in setting eligibility requirements for publicly funded education programs without violating constitutional protections for religious families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Christian family in Vermont is taking state education officials to federal court, arguing that a new law unfairly prevents families from using taxpayer-funded tuition assistance to send their children to religious schools. The Bishop family filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont, claiming the state’s revised education policies…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":33296,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nChristian Family Fights Back After Vermont Cuts Funding For Faith-Based Schools<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A VT family's lawsuit challenges new school funding rules that exclude religious schools, raising questions about parental choice and faith.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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