The Bishop family lives in a Vermont school district without a high school. Their daughter still needs an education, so they chose Mount St. Joseph Academy, a Catholic high school. Now they’re challenging the government’s refusal to help pay her tuition through a program designed for families whose districts lack a school.
The family filed a federal lawsuit on October 27 challenging its exclusion from Vermont’s Town Tuition and Dual Enrollment programs. Their attorneys also contend that their daughter qualified for a grandfather provision, but the district refused to honor it. Those allegations put a practical question before the court: What educational help can a family actually use?
From Alliance Defending Freedom:
The Bishop family, represented by ADF attorneys, lives in the Barstow Unified Union School District, which doesn’t have a high school, so they chose to send their daughter to a Catholic school, Mount St. Joseph Academy. Government officials, however, denied the family’s request for Town Tuition funding because Act 73 eliminates all religious schools from the Town Tuition Program. Plus, the Barstow Unified School District refused to grandfather the Bishops’ daughter into the tuition program even though she met the requirements of the law.
Additionally, Vermont’s Dual Enrollment Program allows high school students to take college courses at no cost to them, which the Bishops’ daughter wanted to participate in. Eligibility for the program, however, is contingent on Town Tuition—a student must either be enrolled in a public school or receive Town Tuition funding at a private school to be eligible. Since the government denied giving their daughter Town Tuition funding because she attends an ineligible school, she is also excluded from participating in the Dual Enrollment Program.
Vermont’s tuition system addresses an obvious problem. Some communities lack schools serving every grade, so their districts pay tuition for students to attend eligible schools elsewhere. Parents must find a place for their children to learn, regardless of whether their hometown operates the necessary classrooms.
Act 73 narrowed the available choices. Approved independent schools must meet geographic restrictions and a threshold requiring that publicly funded students make up at least 25% of enrollment during the 2023-2024 school year. Exceptions exist for certain other categories, including therapeutic schools.
Consider what the historical enrollment requirement measures. A school could improve its teaching, attract more families, and offer exactly the environment a particular child needs. None of those improvements change its 2023-2024 enrollment figures. Lawmakers have made an old head count part of the test for a family’s present educational options.
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Parents have a reason to object to a system that gives yesterday’s enrollment spreadsheet so much authority over tomorrow’s classroom. Academic quality, responsible spending, and a child’s needs should carry more weight than preserving an established roster of institutions.
The Bishops' problem also extends beyond high school tuition. Their attorneys say their daughter wanted to take college courses through Vermont’s Dual Enrollment Program, which provides courses at no cost to eligible students. Because she lacked qualifying tuition funding at her private school, she was also excluded from that opportunity. One eligibility decision thus closed two doors.
Religious discrimination is the family’s central allegation, but the legal record requires care. In May, a federal judge denied a preliminary injunction against Act 73 in a separate case involving Mid Vermont Christian School.
The court found the challenged criteria neutral toward religion and noted that they eliminated eligibility for 18 secular independent schools and 15 Catholic and Christian schools.
Vermont defended the restrictions as measures to support efficiency and a more centralized education system. The May decision addressed a request for preliminary relief in another lawsuit; it didn’t decide the Bishops’ newly filed claims. Still, describing the statute as an explicit ban on Catholic education misstates its language and ignores a substantial judicial obstacle.
The Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in Carson v. Makin supplies an essential principle: Maine couldn’t exclude otherwise eligible schools from tuition assistance because they provided religious instruction. Whether Vermont’s different eligibility structure violates that principle requires examining the actual rules and evidence. A lawsuit’s accusation can’t substitute for the court’s work.
The policy argument remains strong regardless of how the litigation unfolds. Restricting secular families alongside religious families gives more parents a reason to demand better choices. Vermont should explain why its funding rules serve children better than letting families choose schools that meet clear academic and financial standards.
The Bishops' daughter needs an education she can use now. A centralized system may look tidy from Montpelier, but parents have to live with the doors it closes.