Colorado sued over rule barring state funding of religious schools 

February 18, 2026

Two educational entities have filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado to strike down a Colorado state constitutional amendment prohibiting public funding for religious schools.

The Christian Post reports that Education ReEnvisioned BOCES, which authorizes and oversees various schools, and the Christian school Riverstone Academy claim the amendment violates the rights of faith-based schools and religious families. 

Education Commissioner Susana Cordova and members of the Colorado State Board of Education are named as defendants in the complaint and are accused of showing “a clear animus toward people of faith.”

The lawsuit states: “The state constitution and statutes prohibit school districts and BOCES from contracting with religious schools to provide educational services, in violation of religious schools’ free exercise rights as well as the rights of the religious students and parents who would attend that school.”

The suit goes on to say, “This is direct and unconstitutional discrimination against religion in violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Such a blanket prohibition violates the Free Exercise Clause of the United States Constitution by excluding religious schools from otherwise available benefits on the basis of their religion.”

According to the Christian Post, the issue is centered around the state constitution’s Blaine amendment which prohibits public entities from making “any appropriation, or pay from any public fund or moneys whatever, anything in aid of any church or sectarian society, or for any sectarian purpose, or to help support or sustain any school, academy, seminary, college, university or other literary or scientific institution, controlled by any church or sectarian denomination whatsoever.”

The Blaine amendment hearkens back to 1875 when anti-religious bigotry toward Catholics prompted 37 states to prohibit public funding for religious institutions in their state constitutions.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2022 ruled 6-3 in David Carson et al. v. A. Pender Makin that Maine could not prohibit parents from using a state tuition program to send their children to religious private schools.

The Colorado lawsuit includes a quote from Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote in the majority opinion that the high court has “repeatedly held that a State violates the Free Exercise Clause when it excludes religious observers from otherwise available public benefits.” 

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