California charter schools discriminate against religious families, lawsuit claims 

California homeschool parents are suing the public education system for anti-Christian discrimination.  

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, three homeschool families claim their charter schools violated their First Amendment rights by refusing to allow the families to purchase Christian curricula.  

In California, homeschool families can receive public funding by enrolling in a public or charter school’s independent study program. Purchases with state funds must be approved by the school and families must provide work samples to demonstrate their students’ progress.  

According to a homeschool website, students receive between $2,200 and $3,200 – a mere fraction of the $16,300 each traditional public school receives per pupil.  

“As the Supreme Court made clear last year in Carson v. Makin, when the government provides a benefit, like parent-directed educational funding, it cannot exclude families just because they choose to use that benefit for a religious education,” said Ethan Davis, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs. “Religious families are entitled to the same educational benefits as everyone else.”  

The lawsuit reports the families were denied their choice of curriculum on multiple occasions purely because it contained religious content – even though the charters claim parents can choose materials “based on their own private preferences.”  

The homeschool parents are not allowed to purchase the works of Jonathan Edwards or William Penn to study colonial America, textbooks from Bob Jones University, materials from Emmaus Classical Academy, or comprehensive homeschool curricula called The Good and the Beautiful. 

One parent even recalled one of her student’s work samples being rejected for having “religious wording.”  

The work sample included the sentence, “God sends the rain to help plants grow.”   

The homeschool families are suing their respective charter schools as well as state Superintendent Tony Thurmond for violating their First Amendment rights.  

“These families love their charter schools and the opportunities those schools provide for families to educate their children in a way that fits the families’ needs,” said Justin Butterfield, deputy general counsel for First Liberty, who is also representing the plaintiffs. “Our clients simply want to be able to choose curricula that fits their families’ needs without facing religious discrimination.”