Colorado punishes families for choosing Catholic schools | Opinion

USA Today · Ashley McGuire, USA TODAY · 2026-11-05 13:01 UTC

It should be a no-brainer that choosing one category of preschool to exclude from a supposedly universal benefit violates the First Amendment.

Colorado's discriminatory policy is hurting its Catholic schools. Many interested families end up going elsewhere for the financial incentive to attend schools that qualify for tuition reimbursement.

Erika Nagle spends nearly three hours a day in the car driving her children to school. The cost of living in Castle Rock, Colorado, is better, but she’s willing to make the sacrifice to trek to St. Mary’s parish school in the Archdiocese of Denver because of, in her words, “just how amazing and extraordinary the school is.”

The state of Colorado is making her sacrifice even more. St. Mary’s has been excluded by the state from a purportedly universal preschool tuition benefit program it launched in 2023. The program is designed to give each child 15 hours or approximately $6,000 toward annual tuition.

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