Last year, Vermont implemented anti-discrimination rules that private schools must follow if they want state money. Among them: In order to receive public tuition dollars, the head of school must sign a statement affirming that the institution in question will follow state anti-discrimination laws.
But now, a pair of religious schools are testing that rule. In applications to the State Board of Education last month, the heads of two Vermont Christian schools sought approval for tuition money — but hinted that they might not follow all of Vermont’s anti-discrimination laws.
“As a Christian-based school, we have a statutory and constitutional right to make decisions based on our religious beliefs, including those pertaining to marriage and sexuality,” three leaders of United Christian Academy, a Newport, Vt., school, wrote in a statement filed with the state board.
“By signing below, United Christian Academy does not waive any such rights,” head of school Kimberlee Strepka, board of directors chair Roderick Ames and board vice chair Debra Partridge wrote in a Jan. 4 statement.
Mid Vermont Christian School, a private school in Quechee, submitted a nearly identical statement dated Jan. 5. In the event that Vermont education rules “conflict with any of the school’s beliefs, including on marriage and sexuality,” Mid Vermont Christian’s head of school, Vicky Fogg, wrote that the school could not “affirm that particular aspect of” Vermont law.
United Christian Academy was applying for approval for the first time, while Mid Vermont Christian was applying for renewal of its approval. It’s not clear whether Mid Vermont Christian has received public tuition dollars in the past.
The applications are a sign of the uncertain and rapidly changing landscape around Vermont’s private religious schools.
Hundreds of Vermont students live in towns too small and rural to operate public schools at all grade levels. Instead, the state pays for students in those towns to go to school — public or private — elsewhere in the state, country or world.
Following a 1999 Vermont Supreme Court ruling, religious schools were essentially barred from touching those public dollars. But over the last three years, a series of U.S. Supreme Court rulings — the most recent of which was handed down last June — have dismantled that restriction.
Since last year, schools seeking approval must sign a statement affirming that they will follow Vermont’s Public Accommodations Act, a law prohibiting discrimination based on “race, creed, color, national origin, marital status, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity” in businesses and schools open to the public.
“This was the first time we were confronted with a school signing something different than the attestation clause that the agency has prepared,” Jennifer Samuelson, the chair of the state Board of Education, said in an interview.
Administrators at the two schools did not respond to phone calls and emails seeking interviews.
Mid Vermont Christian school, a pre-K-12 school in Quechee, offers an “affordable, Christ-centered education,” according to its website. “The Word of God is integrated into each classroom and each subject,” the website reads.
United Christian Academy’s website describes itself as a K-12 “unique multi-denominational school with Catholic and Protestant students, faculty and staff.”
Past years’ parent and student handbooks from both schools, located online, describe clear anti-LGBTQ+ stances.
According to the United Christian Academy’s 2017-2018 handbook, “homosexual and lesbian behavior are clearly contrary to God’s Word,” and “abstinence before marriage is clearly the Biblical principle.”
Strepka, United Christian Academy’s head of school, said in an email that the handbook has been updated since then but did not provide an updated version or respond to a question about what changes had been made.
In a 2020-2021 handbook, the Mid Vermont Christian School claimed the right to reject or expel students for, among other things, “supporting sexual immorality” and “practicing homosexual lifestyle or alternative gender identity.”
All employees and volunteers are expected to agree to a statement that includes prohibitions of homosexuality, bisexuality, transgender identity and extramarital sex, according to the handbook.
“We believe that every person must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect and dignity,” it reads.
Fogg, the head of the Mid Vermont Christian School, did not reply to questions about the handbook. It’s not clear whether the school’s current handbook has changed since the 2020-2021 school year.
Lawmakers in Montpelier, concerned by the possibility that public dollars might subsidize schools that discriminate against LGBTQ+ people, are also looking at potential legislation to further restrict the flow of public tuition dollars to private schools. But it’s not yet clear what form that legislation might take.
In a statement posted to its website, the Vermont Independent Schools Association indicated that it would not support the two schools’ applications.
“VISA opposes initial approval or approval renewal for any independent school unwilling to affirm it will comply with the nondiscrimination requirements in the Vermont Public Accommodations Act and in State Board of Education rules for independent schools,” the statement reads.
At a state education board meeting Tuesday, Secretary of Education Dan French recommended that the board grant the schools a roughly month-long conditional approval.
But the state board instead opted to simply postpone the decision until the schools submitted a complete statement of affirmation. (Ted Fisher, an Agency of Education spokesperson, said the two options would have “substantively the same” effect.)
State board members ultimately decided that the schools’ statement “was not compliant with our rules,” said Samuelson, the state board chair, and opted to withhold approval.
Without state approval, a school cannot receive public tuition dollars.
“At this point, it goes to the schools to really decide what their course of action is going to be,” she said. “So if they sign the attestation clause, then they can come back before the board and we will consider their request at that point.”