How a federal case could decide the future of faith-based schools

School choice is on the move in America, and President Donald Trump’s January 29 executive order to expand education freedom and opportunity for families marks another critical step toward breaking public schools’ monopoly over the country’s educational system. Ensuring that religious freedom safeguards are part of school choice initiatives will be another crucial step.

Fortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a case involving St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which is run by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has sought to bar St. Isidore from the state’s charter school program. Approving St. Isidore, Drummond claims, “will require the state to permit extreme sects of the Muslim faith to establish a taxpayer-funded public charter school teaching Sharia Law.”

Unless religious freedom is safeguarded, the promise of school choice to Catholic families will be empty.

Such manufactured obstacles to parental choice are petty, vindictive, and out of step with the times. Just ask the Abols family of Colorado.

Andy and Gina Abols, parents of five children ranging from 1 to 11 years old, moved to Colorado primarily because Medicaid provides the best coverage for their 9-year-old daughter, who has spina bifida. “We’re in Colorado pretty much only because her medical needs are covered by Medicaid better here than any other state,” Andy said.

Education expenses, however, remain a challenge. Two of their children attend a charter school that, according to Andy, “doesn’t dabble in the realm of politics or anything along those lines.” Their 10-year-old son, who has learning disabilities, is enrolled in a hybrid school where he homeschools with Gina a few days a week. Their 3-year-old attends preschool at St. Mary’s, their Catholic parish in Littleton.

The biggest financial strain comes from their youngest daughter’s preschool tuition, which the family must pay out of pocket. That burden could have been avoided if not for the anti-Catholic bias embedded in Colorado’s universal preschool initiative, which excludes religious institutions like St. Mary’s from receiving funding.

In 2022, Colorado established a universal preschool program to provide all preschoolers with 15 hours of free education per week at a private or public school of their parents’ choice. The catch: Schools can participate in the program only if they agree to a broadly worded “anti-discrimination mandate.” If you suspect that’s shorthand for a piece of secular bureaucratic bullying, you’d be right.

A statewide coalition of religious preschool providers, including the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver, sent a letter to state officials requesting that faith-based preschool providers be exempt from the mandate’s “equal opportunity” provision, concerned that compliance could undermine religious teaching on human sexuality and identity — which, of course, was its real purpose.

After state officials denied religious exemptions, the archdiocese directed its preschools not to participate. Along with two parishes that operate preschools — St. Mary’s of Littleton and St. Bernadette of Lakewood — the archdiocese went to court.

That lawsuit argues that the sexual orientation and gender identity aspects of the mandate exclude many parents from receiving a generally available public benefit in violation of the Constitution. While allowing the schools to prefer Catholics in enrollment, the lower court ruled in favor of the state last year. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is reviewing the case. The court heard oral arguments on Tuesday. The case could eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court and set an enormous precedent.

The Abolses and four other Colorado families submitted an amicus brief to the appellate court to support the archdiocese. When discussing his children’s education, Andy says, “Our faith is critical.” He “absolutely trusts” St. Mary’s, explaining, “They’re just a lot more tender with the kids” than the other private schools his older children attend. “They have the compassion that our special needs family needs,” he explained.

The Abolses are thankful that preschool at St. Mary’s integrates stories from the Bible as part of classroom teaching. Andy emphasizes that St. Mary’s “prioritizes virtue and faith” and notes “a clear difference in our children who have gone to preschool at St. Mary’s versus our children who have gone elsewhere.”

The Abolses are not alone in making heroic sacrifices to send their children to religious schools, including preschools. Many parents understand that educating their children includes forming them in the faith and regard Catholic schools as perfect partners in this endeavor. Colorado should respect them.

Hundreds of Catholic schools nationwide are not merely surviving in the 21st century; they are thriving. “The Catholic School Playbook,” a new resource from Word on Fire Publishing, highlights this trend. Authors Michael Ortner and Kimberly Begg note, “Parents who discover [Catholic schools ] are often thrilled at the formation and education their children are receiving, often to the point of benign envy once they realize how deficient their own education and faith formation were.”

These revivified Catholic schools have embraced the study of classic texts, Latin, grammar, art, poetry, and music, alongside history, math, and science. In short, Ortner and Begg write, “they prioritize the cultivation of wonder and virtue over the trendy concerns of college and career readiness.”

Never before have the prospects for Catholic parents been so exciting. Never before have both the executive branch and the federal judiciary been so committed to defending parents’ right to choose the best educational option for their children. But unless religious freedom is safeguarded, their promise to families like the Abolses will be empty.