When the government chooses to cooperate with private organizations to provide public services, the Supreme Court has made clear that the First Amendment prohibits religious discrimination. Three cases--"Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer" (2017), "Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue" (2020), and…

In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court held in "Carson v. Makin" that Maine violated the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment by excluding religious schools from a private-school-choice program--colloquially known as "town tuitioning"--for students in school districts without public high schools. Writing for the majority,…

The federal government has been heavily involved in education since the mid-1960s, intervening in everything from early childhood education to graduate schooling. This paper lays out the principles that should govern federal involvement in seven specific areas and briefly examines the effects of Washington's policies. The areas are elementary and…

In New York State, private and religious schools are required to offer a curriculum "substantially equivalent" to what is available in local public schools. Substantial equivalency--which has been law for nearly 130 years--allows parents to direct the education of their children by enrolling them in the school of their choice, while also…

The purpose of this qualitative multi-case study is to explore the ways in which preservice teachers seeking either early-childhood or elementary licensure understand their roles and responsibilities in regards to the teaching of religion. Seven participants participated in the study and provided a range of data including -- though not limited to…

In the 2009 "Abbott v. Burke XX" decision, the New Jersey Supreme Court approved the SFRA formula as a replacement for the previously Court-ordered "parity" and "supplemental funding" remedies for the longstanding violation of the constitutional right to a thorough and efficient education of students in 31 urban, or…

The federal government's role in PreK-12 education has long been contentious and continues to evolve. Many have written about education governance, but few have attempted to define an appropriate role for the federal government. That is the core purpose of this essay. The authors articulate a set of principles to guide the federal role in…

This policy brief addresses federal and state constitutional issues that arise when faith-based organizations participate in state prekindergarten (pre-k) programs and recommends safeguards to ensure that public funding of those programs complies with constitutional principles respecting the separation of church and state and freedom of religion.…

Many people in the early childhood education field are afraid of government relations work, intimidated by politicians, and believe the whole process is unseemly. The author asserts that they should not be afraid nor be intimidated because government relations is not rocket science and fundamentally officeholders are no different from the rest of…