Director: Daniel C. Levy

Too Religious

PROPHE Summary:

In Colorado, a federal court has upheld the state's right to disallow state scholarship monies from going to private institutions it deems "pervasively sectarian." In the case, nobody disputes how dominantly religious Colorado Christian University is. Instead, the university concentrated its argument on the similarity with majors at public and other private colleges. The Bush administration supported that case, charging that Colorado was getting inappropriately involved in judging what is acceptably religious.

For the full story, see Inside Higher Ed, May 21, 2007 "How Sectarian is Too Sectarian," by Scott Jaschik.

PROPHE Observation:

This is a fascinating case of the perennially difficult U.S. question of the line between church and state. It is also an interesting case of the perennial debate over the boundary between states and the national government in a federal system. Normally, religious institutions in higher education are less constrained by "separation of church and state" issues than is the case at lower educational levels. Moreover, the U.S. system of student assistance has based itself on the idea that it goes to students at any accredited institution, indeed including for-profit ones. Yet such policy need not be binding on states when it comes to the states' own assistance programs.