Christians sue Minnesota for excluding religious colleges from free enrollment program
Jeremiah Poff
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Two Christian families and two Christian universities in Minnesota have filed a lawsuit against the state for prohibiting the universities from participating in a state-funded program that allows high school students to earn college credits for free.
The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court Wednesday, challenges a recently signed law in Minnesota that modifies the state’s Postsecondary Enrollment Options program to exclude religious schools that require statements of faith. The program, which was created in 1985, had previously allowed all religious schools to participate.
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The lawsuit says that a law enacted by state Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) this week includes a clause that prohibits schools from participating in the PSEO program if they require students to submit a statement of faith. The requirement, the lawsuit says, was specifically targeted at Crown College and the University of Northwestern St. Paul, two Christian schools that require statements of faith.
“The amendment discriminates against religion on its face because it (1) disqualifies religious postsecondary institutions, like Crown and Northwestern, that require faith statements for enrollment from participating in the PSEO program and (2) prevents parents of eligible high school students from enrolling their children in these otherwise-eligible institutions, tuition free, under the PSEO program,” the lawsuit says.
The group of plaintiffs is represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit legal organization that specializes in religious freedom cases. In a press release, the organization said that the state’s new law was “discriminatory” and noted that the Supreme Court has repeatedly struck down requirements like it, including last year in Carson v. Makin, which said that Maine could not exclude religious schools from a limited school choice program.
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“Minnesota politicians just slammed the door on thousands of kids in their state who want to get a head start on college, all because the schools they want to attend share their religious beliefs,” Becket senior counsel Diana Thomson said. “That decision is not only patently anti-religious; it is also against the law. We are confident this ban will not stand for long.”
Kevin Burns, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Education, told the Washington Examiner that the agency “has received the lawsuit, and we are currently reviewing it.”