Christian school wins Tennessee court case challenging religious charter ban
Did you know search engines like Google are changing the way you see news? Keep Chalkbeat’s valuable education coverage at the top of your feeds by clicking here and checking the box next to our name. Knox County Schools cannot block a Christian charter school application on religious grounds despite a Tennessee law banning religious charter schools, according to a federal court ruling on Friday.…
A federal court in Tennessee has ruled that the state's law banning religious charter schools cannot be used to block a Christian school from applying for a charter. The ruling, which applies specifically to Knox County Schools and the Wilberforce Academy of Knoxville, states that the First Amendment does not allow a state to force an organization to abandon its religious beliefs as a condition of participating in a public benefit program.
However, the decision does not overturn Tennessee's religious charter school ban or guarantee that Wilberforce's application will be approved. The ruling comes as there is a growing push from conservatives to allow taxpayer-funded religious schools. Tennessee's Attorney General had previously called the 2002 law "likely" unconstitutional, but stepped aside earlier this year, leaving Knox County Schools to face the lawsuit.
Tennessee lawmakers recently loosened restrictions on religious charter schools, allowing religious organizations to operate them as long as they remain nonreligious. Wilberforce aims to open an explicitly Christian school with a religious curriculum.
Brief written by urgent.news from Chalkbeat's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
