Taxpayers for Public Education v. Douglas County School District
Description: A Douglas County, Colo., school choice program allows private religious schools to participate in addition to government-run schools. Opponents of the program filed suit after the school district implemented the program to allow for greater parental choice. The lawsuit inaccurately claims that the inclusion of religious schools in the program violates state constitutional provisions governing the relationship between church and state. In reality, faith-based schools that meet all other qualifications are constitutionally free to participate in a religiously neutral program.
Colo. high court tosses children at faith-based schools out of school choice program
The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor regarding the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision Monday in Taxpayers for Public Education v. Douglas County School District to exclude children at faith-based schools from a school choice program:“Children are the ones who will suffer the most from the court’s decision today. The court’s decision is wrong because faith-based schools that meet all other qualifications cannot constitutionally be excluded from a religiously neutral program. The Court of Appeals had affirmed that, and the Colorado Supreme Court should have done the same. These schools provide an excellent education that meets all state standards. They should continue to be welcomed into programs like this one so that students, the community, and the government will all benefit.”
ADF and Stuart Lark, one of more than 2,500 private attorneys allied with ADF, filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Colorado Supreme Court on behalf of the Association of Christian Schools International, the Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs, Colorado Christian University, and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
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ABOUT Gregory S. Baylor
Gregory S. Baylor serves as senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, where he is the director of the Center for Religious Schools and senior counsel with the Center for Public Policy. Since joining ADF in 2009, Baylor has focused on defending and advancing the religious freedom of faith-based educational institutions through advice, education, legislative and public advocacy, and representation in disputes. He has testified about religious liberty issues three times before congressional committees. Greg earned his Juris Doctor in 1990 from Duke University School of Law, where he graduated Order of the Coif, with high honors, and served on the editorial board of the Duke Law Journal. He received his bachelor’s degree in Honors English in 1987 from Dartmouth College. Following graduation from law school, he served as law clerk to the Hon. Jerry E. Smith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. He practiced labor and employment law at two large international law firms for three years before joining the staff of Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom, where he served for 15 years prior to joining ADF.