ERIC Number: ED672587
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Jan
Pages: 13
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: 0000-00-00
The Persistence of Religious Discrimination in Publicly Funded Pre-K Programs
Nicole Stelle Garnett; Tim Rosenberger; J. Theodore Austin
Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
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 "Carson v. Makin" (2022)--illuminate this concept. In "Trinity Lutheran," the Court held that Missouri unconstitutionally excluded a faith-based preschool from receiving state-funded playground resurfacing. In "Espinoza," it found that Montana's supreme court unconstitutionally invalidated a private-school-choice program because it included faith-based schools. And in "Carson," the Court held that Maine violated the Constitution when it excluded religious schools from a rural scholarship program. Read together, these three cases establish a clear nondiscrimination mandate: when the government establishes programs that extend public benefits to private organizations, it cannot exclude religious organizations from participating. This report details unconstitutional religious discrimination in public pre-K programs. The authors hope that this report will draw attention to pre-K programs that fail to comply with the Free Exercise Clause's nondiscrimination principle.
Descriptors: Preschool Education, Religious Discrimination, Religious Schools, Educational Finance, Public Support, Financial Support, Court Litigation, Constitutional Law, School Districts, School Choice
Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017. Tel: 212-599-7000; Fax: 212-599-3494; Web site: http://www.manhattan-institute.org
Publication Type: Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Preschool Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Manhattan Institute (MI)
Identifiers - Location: Missouri; Montana; Maine; Florida; Indiana; Alabama; New York
Identifiers - Laws, Policies, & Programs: First Amendment; Lemon v Kurtzman
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A