Vermont family fights tuition aid denial over daughter’s Catholic education

A Vermont family filed a federal lawsuit Oct. 27 challenging state restrictions they say deny their daughter tuition assistance because she attends a Catholic school.

Carrie and Greg Bishop are challenging state and local officials on behalf of their daughter in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont, according to an Oct. 28 press release from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which represents them.

According to ADF, the lawsuit is one of several challenges the firm has brought against Vermont’s restrictions on religious schools’ access to public education benefits. The firm said Vermont barred religious schools from those benefits for decades before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in 2021 that the exclusion violated the First Amendment.

ADF said Act 73, enacted in 2025, again made religious schools ineligible for tuition assistance, prompting the Bishops’ new challenge.

ADF Legal Counsel Jake Reed criticized Vermont’s continued restrictions on religious families’ access to education benefits.

“Parents should be able to send their children to schools that are the best fit for them, and the First Amendment protects parents’ right to choose religious schools,” he said in the release. “Yet after decades and multiple court rulings protecting religious freedom, Vermont continues to discriminate against religious families and schools. Such unequal treatment violates the First Amendment, and government officials must be held accountable.”

Because their district does not operate a high school, the Bishops sought funding to send their daughter to Mount St. Joseph Academy through Vermont’s Town Tuition Program, which pays tuition at eligible public or private schools. Officials denied their request under Act 73, according to ADF.

The Barstow Unified Union School District also refused to grandfather the Bishops’ daughter into the program despite her meeting the law’s requirements, according to ADF’s release.

Without tuition funding, she is also ineligible for Vermont’s Dual Enrollment Program, which allows qualifying high school students to take college courses at no cost, according to ADF. Eligibility for private school students depends on receiving Town Tuition funding.

Reed said Vermont continues to deny religious families equal access to public benefits.

“Vermont’s message is clear: Religious schools and their families are treated as second-class in this state,” he said in the release. “No religious school qualifies for Town Tuition funding, and no family who wants to send their kids to a religious school can reap the benefits of their own tax dollars. The First Amendment does not tolerate such treatment.”