A nonprofit organization in Monroe County, Indiana, has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana challenging a statute that authorizes religious colleges and universities to sponsor charter K–12 schools. The challenge is based on the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The suit asserts that permitting a faith-based institution to review a school’s proposed curriculum and decide whether to authorize a charter violates the federal constitutional principle of separation of church and state.
The Indiana Coalition for Public Education of Monroe County and South Central Indiana takes the position that “only state and local officials who answer to the public should be able to authorize charter schools.” While the suit challenges the statute on principle, it names state officials and Seven Oaks Classical School in Ellettsville, Indiana. The school is chartered under the supervision of Grace College and Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana.
Learn more
- Find the Indiana Coalition for Public Education of Monroe County and South Central Indiana’s information page about the lawsuit here.
- The Indiana Lawyer covers the lawsuit here.
- Read the complaint here.
- Read the challenged statute here:
- Indiana Code §§ 20-24-1-2.5(5) and 20-24-3-1, which make Grace College and Seminary an authorizer of charter schools
- Indiana Code § 20-24-7-4, which provides that state funds will be paid to Grace College for being the authorizer
- Indiana Code §§ 20-24-3-1 through 20-24-9-2, which fail to establish standards for such authorization that would prohibit Grace College from using religious principles as a basis for authorizing a charter school.
- Grace College and Seminary’s information page about its charter schools
- Religion Clause covers the complaint here.