Colorado Wants to Force Catholic Schools to Abandon Their Faith or Lose Funding

Here’s what’s really happening in Colorado, and it should alarm anyone who values religious freedom. The state created a universal pre-K program that sounds wonderful on paper. Who doesn’t want accessible early education? But there’s a catch, and it’s a big one. If you’re a Catholic school that operates according to your faith’s teachings on marriage and family, Colorado says you can’t participate unless you abandon those beliefs at the door.

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a case that cuts right to the heart of the First Amendment. A Catholic preschool in Littleton is fighting back against what amounts to state-sponsored discrimination. The school’s position is straightforward. They welcome all children, but they operate according to Catholic teaching, which includes a traditional understanding of marriage. Colorado’s response? Change your beliefs or get nothing.

This isn’t about whether you personally agree with Catholic teaching on marriage. You might not. But that’s not the point, and honestly, it never was. The question is whether the government can dangle funding in front of religious institutions and then demand they compromise their core convictions to get it. That’s coercion dressed up as inclusion, and it’s exactly the kind of thing the First Amendment was designed to prevent.

Colorado argues that faith-based preschools can participate, just as long as they comply with state anti-discrimination laws that include protections for LGBTQ individuals. Sounds reasonable until you realize what they’re actually saying. Religious schools can keep their religious identity, but only if it doesn’t actually mean anything in practice. You can have your crucifix on the wall, just don’t let your theology influence who you serve or how you operate. It’s religious freedom as decoration, not principle.

Both a federal district court and the Tenth Circuit sided with Colorado, which tells you something about how far we’ve drifted from understanding what religious liberty actually protects. These aren’t fringe beliefs we’re talking about. Catholic teaching on marriage has been consistent for two thousand years. The idea that this somehow became discriminatory in the last decade says more about our cultural moment than it does about Catholic theology.

The Trump administration has backed the Catholic schools, calling the lower court rulings “deeply problematic.” That’s putting it mildly. When government creates a universal program funded by taxpayers, including Catholic taxpayers, and then excludes religious institutions for being religious, that’s not neutrality. That’s hostility.

You know what’s frustrating? Colorado could have designed this program differently. They could have included religious exemptions. They could have respected pluralism. Instead, they chose to create a system that forces religious schools into an impossible position. Participate and violate your conscience, or maintain your integrity and watch families who need your services go elsewhere because the state won’t fund them.

This case matters beyond Colorado and beyond Catholic schools. If the government can condition funding on abandoning religious convictions, where does it stop? Can they require religious hospitals to perform procedures that violate their mission? Can they force religious charities to hire in ways that contradict their values? The principle at stake here extends far beyond one preschool program.

The Supreme Court has a chance to clarify what religious freedom means in practice, not just in theory. Does it protect the right to believe differently, or just the right to keep those beliefs private and powerless? The answer will shape American pluralism for generations.

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