BURLINGTON, Vt. – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing a Vermont family filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging state and local officials for excluding religious families and schools from publicly available benefits. For decades, Vermont education officials intentionally banned all religious schools and their families from two public benefit programs: the Town Tuition Program and the Dual Enrollment Program.
In 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled that Vermont’s policy of excluding religious schools and families violated the First Amendment. But just last year, Vermont enacted a new law—Act 73—that accomplished the same exact result: Every single religious school (and their families) is ineligible for public benefits.
“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 ADF Legal Counsel Jake Reed. “Yet after decades and multiple court rulings protecting religious freedom, Vermont continues to discriminate against religious families and schools. Such unequal treatment violates the First Amendment, and government officials must be held accountable.”
Vermont is sparsely populated, and many families live in school districts that do not operate a school. Instead, those school districts pay the tuition for students to attend a different public or private school—a system called the Town Tuition Program.
The Bishop family, represented by ADF attorneys, lives in the Barstow Unified Union School District, which doesn’t have a high school, so they chose to send their daughter to a Catholic school, Mount St. Joseph Academy. Government officials, however, denied the family’s request for Town Tuition funding because Act 73 eliminates all religious schools from the Town Tuition Program. Plus, the Barstow Unified School District refused to grandfather the Bishops’ daughter into the tuition program even though she met the requirements of the law.
Additionally, Vermont’s Dual Enrollment Program allows high school students to take college courses at no cost to them, which the Bishops’ daughter wanted to participate in. Eligibility for the program, however, is contingent on Town Tuition—a student must either be enrolled in a public school or receive Town Tuition funding at a private school to be eligible. Since the government denied giving their daughter Town Tuition funding because she attends an ineligible school, she is also excluded from participating in the Dual Enrollment Program.
“Vermont’s message is clear: Religious schools and their families are treated as second-class in this state. No religious school qualifies for Town Tuition funding, and no family who wants to send their kids to a religious school can reap the benefits of their own tax dollars. The First Amendment does not tolerate such treatment,” Reed added.
Shortly after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit put an end to Vermont’s unconstitutional religious discrimination in 2021, the next year the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Maine’s similar religious exclusion in Carson v. Makin, ruling that the government could not exclude religious families from public benefits because of their religious exercise.
Vermont officials and school districts, however, continue to ignore the law and the Constitution by prohibiting funding to religious schools.
ADF attorneys are currently litigating a similar case on behalf of Mid Vermont Christian School and one of its families. In 2021 and 2022, ADF attorneys secured favorable outcomes for religious families in the state in three other cases.
ADF attorneys filed Bishop v. Saunders in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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