NC activist group trying to limit educational choices for low-income families

NORTH CAROLINA — Alliance Defending Freedom sent North Carolina Christian schools a letter Friday reinforcing their freedom to participate in a state school choice program for economically disadvantaged families. The group Equality North Carolina recently pressured one Christian school into deciding not to participate in the program simply because the activist group does not agree with the school’s biblical teachings.

“Low-income families should be free to choose the best education for their children, including schools that affirm and reinforce their religious beliefs,” said Senior Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco. “North Carolina’s new program provides exactly these types of educational choices for families that are struggling financially. Unfortunately, Equality North Carolina is working to take those choices away based on its intolerance for the schools’ and families’ religious beliefs.”

The Alliance Defending Freedom letter, also signed by North Carolina Family Policy Council and NC Values Coalition, explains that “private Christian schools have a constitutional right to require their faculty, staff, and students to adhere to biblical standards of morality. Moreover, the First Amendment forbids the State from excluding religious schools from government programs and benefits based on how they exercise their faith.”

“As the Supreme Court has said,” the letter continues, “‘religious people (or groups of religious people) cannot be denied the opportunity to exercise the rights of citizens simply because of their religious affiliations or commitments, for such a disability would violate the right to religious free exercise….’ Now is the time to stand up to anti-freedom groups like Equality NC, not yield to their demands by self-imposing limits on your religious liberty that the First Amendment would clearly bar.”

“Christian schools have the constitutionally protected freedom to participate in this program, and parents have the same freedom to choose one of those schools to educate their children,” added Legal Counsel Matt Sharp. “Christian schools should not allow groups hostile to religion to intimidate them into eliminating educational choices for low-income families.”