Education from a Christian Perspective
Colorado Funding Decision

Everyone seems to agree that education is needed. Where we stumble is what is education; is education from a Christian perspective a warranted part of what the state should foster in education; and should state funding be available for education from a Christian perspective. This post is about the last matter.

Litigation is a lousy way to make decisions, yet because of the muddled state of church/state relations in the federal judiciary, all controversies on funding education from a Christian perspective end up in litigation. Here is an example from the Chronicles of Higher Education:

Colorado Christian University filed a federal lawsuit in 2004, arguing that Colorado laws that deny state aid to students who attend the private institution violate the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit argued that the Colorado Commission on Higher Education was denying the institution's First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion and the right to equal protection under the Constitution's 14th Amendment.

The commission decided in 2004 that Colorado Christian was not eligible for the tuition-assistance program. It found that the university was pervasively sectarian because it failed to meet a series of state requirements: that faculty members and students are not exclusively of one religious persuasion, that the college does not require attendance at religious convocations or services, that it does not require students to take courses in religion or theology that tend to indoctrinate or proselytize, and that its funds do not come primarily or predominantly from sources who advocate a particular religion.

The US District Court in Denver found that state’s position did not violate the university’s “free exercise” right in the 1st Amendment. The Colorado Opportunity Fund permits students at eligible private schools who meet a needs based test to receive half the stipend a student in an undergraduate program at a public college or university receives. Two private schools, Regis University (a Roman Catholic institution) and University of Denver are eligible.

There are, of course, numerous issues arise from such a decision including the second one I set forth above. Is it judicious for states to pursue private college funding yet find ineligible institutions that maintain an authentic commitment to historic Protestant Christianity? Is it for the common good to promote what Colorado labels as “pervasive sectarian” views in undergraduate college education. And, I guess that requires an answer to the first question…what is education? This case is by no means the end of the controversy that will undoubtedly spread to other states and may eventually meander its way to the SCOTUS.