Opinion: Andrea Picciotti-Bayer Says Colorado's Universal Preschool Program Revives the Anti-Catholic Logic of the Blaine Amendments
The Conscience Project director, who filed a brief in the case the justices heard Tuesday, argues an 'equal opportunity' clause shuts Catholic schools out. The arguments and figures are hers.
This is a summary of an opinion column on Fox News by Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, director of the Conscience Project. The views and figures are hers, not RightNewsRightNow's.
The families. She opens with Colorado parents who pay for Catholic preschool out of pocket: a father whose daughter has spina bifida, a mother who started a florist business to cover tuition, and a family of seven children. She filed a friend-of-the-court brief for such families in St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, which she says the Supreme Court heard Nov. 3.
Her central claim. To join Colorado's "universal" preschool program, a school must promise "equal opportunity," a provision that covers sexual orientation and gender identity. She says Catholic schools cannot sign without giving up church teaching on marriage and the human person. "Colorado never has to say 'Catholic,'" she writes. "It only has to write a rule that Catholic schools cannot meet."
The history. She links this to the Blaine amendments of the 1870s, which barred public money from "sectarian" schools. She says the real target was Catholic immigrants, and cites Justice Clarence Thomas's remark in Mitchell v. Helms that "sectarian" was an open code for "Catholic."
The legal case. She points to Trinity Lutheran (2017), Espinoza (2020) and Carson (2022) as rulings that bar states from excluding schools for being religious. She says Colorado lets other providers serve only particular groups, but not Catholic ones.
Her numbers. The benefit is worth about $6,000 a year per 4-year-old. She says roughly 1,500 children across 30 schools are shut out, Catholic preschool enrollment is down about 20%, and two preschools have closed.
Related. Our earlier report covered the justices' questions at Tuesday's argument.
What we could not check. We have not verified her figures or read the briefs. The column does not include a response from Colorado officials.