The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether Colorado may require religious preschools to accept sexual orientation and gender identity nondiscrimination rules as a condition of receiving public preschool funding.
Colorado launched its Universal Preschool Program in 2023 to give every 4-year-old in the state access to free, publicly funded education. The state allowed public and private providers to participate, including faith-based preschools, if they agreed to follow the program’s rules.
Those rules include a requirement that participating preschools not discriminate against students or families based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Catholic preschool providers and the parents of a preschool-age child challenged that requirement in court. They argue that signing the agreement would unconstitutionally burden their faith because their religious beliefs teach that marriage is between one man and one woman.
The case matters for Ohio families, churches and Christian schools because public programs often rely on private and faith-based providers to serve children. When the government opens a program to religious providers, it cannot treat their faith as a problem to be managed. Families should not lose access to a school or preschool they trust because that provider holds to biblical convictions about marriage, male and female, and the truth of the Gospel.
Colorado says providers that take public preschool money must follow the program’s rules. The Catholic challengers say the state is forcing them to compromise their religious values to serve children through a public benefit program. The Supreme Court’s decision will help set the terms for how states may include religious schools in public programs without trampling religious liberty.
