For years, conservatives have been trying to inject faith-based teachings into public classrooms, despite the laws prohibiting it.
One of those efforts reached the Supreme Court this year in an unsuccessful attempt to establish the nation’s first religious charter school. Now, a religious public school in Colorado has managed to do what other like-minded groups have failed to do — open.
But the future of the months-old Riverstone Academy is in jeopardy, following pushback from Colorado officials. The school’s commitment to a “Christian foundation” is being challenged by the state’s education department, which said it will demand to be reimbursed if it finds the elementary school’s religious teachings make it ineligible for public support.
The tension ramping up over Riverstone comes after the Supreme Court deadlocked in May, blocking the creation in Oklahoma of a charter school that would have been a taxpayer-funded public Catholic school. Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s decision not to participate in the Oklahoma case created the conditions for the deadlock. Now, a Florida-based Jewish group is pitching a taxpayer-funded virtual Jewish school, also in Oklahoma, promising a new push to get the Supreme Court to remake legal precedents regarding religion in public schools and the separation of church and state.
Despite the court’s recent deadlock, now is a good time to make a case for funneling taxpayer dollars into religious education, said Steven K. Green, a professor at Willamette University who studies public funding of religious institutions and other legal issues.
The Supreme Court has been “much more supportive of free exercise claims,” Green said. “If they would succeed in this, it would just completely reimagine our concept of public schooling, public education and the way it has operated in this country for 200 years.”
Under prior court rulings, taxpayer money may be used for vouchers to pay tuition at religious private schools. But public schools — including charter schools — established and completely funded by the government, may not include religious teachings.
Unlike the Oklahoma Catholic charter school that was the subject of the Supreme Court case, Riverstone was able to get up and running before opponents pushed back. It was authorized over the summer by Education reEnvisioned, one of Colorado’s 21 boards of cooperative educational services, or BOCES, and opened in August.
It operates as a contract school in Pueblo, Colorado, one that is allowed to open under an agreement between a traditional district or BOCES and a private nonprofit or other group that provides the educational services. Leaders projected it would be a small enrollment this year of 25 children in kindergarten through fifth grades.
Education reEnvisioned signed a contract with Riverstone Academy, which operates the school of the same name, the agreement shows. The elementary school was developed in collaboration with the nonprofit Forging Education, which runs private Christian education programs, the school’s website says.
“Our culture has become hostile to the Christian faith, and the public school system is the primary perpetuator of the secular, progressive worldview,” according to the nonprofit’s website. “Christians increasingly see the need to protect their children while still providing a quality academic education with a solid spiritual foundation.”
Quin Friberg, who runs Riverstone and Forging Education, did not respond to requests for comment.
Yet, some officials did not learn until October that Riverstone was a religious school and pushed back, said Mike Heil, a member of the school board for District 49, the nearby school district that handles Education reEnvisioned’s state funding.
“I find it highly inappropriate,” Heil said. The state’s constitution says that public schools must be nonsectarian, or not religious, he said. “It could not be more clear.”
Ken Witt, Education reEnvisioned’s executive director, said Riverstone has not yet received state funding, but he expects it will in the new year. The school is spending $11,185 per student. The state, on average, spends more than $15,000 per student, data show.
Witt did not respond to questions about how the school is currently being funded.
“Our hope is that the State of Colorado will recognize the value Riverstone provides to the community as a contracted school provider and avoid excluding it from a generally available public benefit just because its curriculum is religious,” Witt said in a statement.
State officials questioned Riverstone’s eligibility for public funds in an Oct. 10 letter first reported by a local news outlet.
Witt, in an Oct. 21 response, said his board cannot discriminate against Riverstone on account of its religious affiliation. He did not answer questions from The Washington Post about what Riverstone will do if the state education department claws back its funding.
Colorado’s education department may begin making payments this month to District 49 based on this school year’s enrollment, said Emma Garrett-Nelson, an agency spokesperson. The district, in turn, provides funding to Education reEnvisioned, which is expected to pay the nonprofit to operate Riverstone.
The funding process does not mean the school is operating with the blessing of the state.
“Regardless, any payments to District 49 now do not reflect a decision by CDE about funding eligibility,” Garrett-Nelson said.
In January, the department will begin its annual audit. If it determines any enrollment to be ineligible for state funding, such as Riverstone’s, the school district will have to pay the money back — potentially setting up a legal showdown.
In Oklahoma, the school at the center of the recent Supreme Court case — St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School — was initially challenged by the state’s Republican attorney general, who sued a state board to stop it from opening. Colorado’s attorney general declined to comment on whether his office would get involved in the Riverstone matter.
Some observers said they suspect Riverstone may be trying to set up another test case for the high court — though Green doubted that Riverstone would work. Colorado’s constitution is clear about how taxpayer dollars may be used, he said.
Michael J. Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative education think tank, said the question would come down to whether Riverstone is a private or a public school.
“It seems likely that the entanglement with the government is just too much for it to be considered anything but a public school, and if it’s a public school, it can’t teach religion,” Petrilli said. “End of story.”
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