Colorado Family Challenges Denial of Preschool Benefits Based on Religious Choice

A Colorado mother says her family was denied $12,000 in state-funded preschool benefits for choosing a Catholic education. Erika Nagle asserts that this discrimination impacts religious families, contradicting the program’s universal aims.

Nagle, with children at St. Mary Catholic School in Littleton, shared with Fox News Digital the denial of state preschool funding for two of her children. This left her family to shoulder additional education costs. ‘We are being excluded from this benefit because we are Catholic,’ Nagle emphasized.

The dispute centers on Colorado’s universal preschool program, which provides over $6,000 per child for eligible preschoolers. Catholic schools have challenged the program, arguing that state participation rules impose unfair burdens on religious beliefs and admissions.

Becket, an organization involved in the case, noted that Colorado’s preschool funding initiative, launched in 2023, offers eligible families around $6,300 for 15 hours of weekly preschool. Promoted as universal, the program was intended to let parents choose among public, private, and religious preschools. However, this prompted participation challenges from Catholic families statewide.

Nagle expressed broader concerns beyond her family’s finances. ‘We have had two preschools in the archdiocese close down,’ she remarked, highlighting impacts on Catholic school enrollment and family choices in religious education.

According to Nagle, the state incentives pressure families to abandon preferred Catholic education. ‘The state is incentivizing people to leave their faith,’ she declared. The universal preschool funds apply to the year before kindergarten, yet Nagle contends that Catholic families face higher costs for their choice.

The case brings up questions about religious schools’ participation in public education programs while keeping faith-based admissions. ‘Colorado shouldn’t force Catholic families to give up their choice,’ Nagle argued, questioning why only Catholic schools face such challenges.

The Supreme Court is set to consider the case, with the Colorado Department of Early Childhood refraining from commenting on pending litigation. Controversy persists over the perceived exclusion of Catholic families from public education benefits.