YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK — DISCRIMINATING AGAINST YOUR NEIGHBORS
An Op-Ed for the Before the Most Important School Vote You'll Cast This Decade
Here's a civics pop quiz. Ready? A religious preschool hangs a "Public Funds Welcome" sign on its front door — then posts a second sign, slightly smaller, reading "But Not Your Kids, Because of Who Their Parents Love." Question: Should your tax dollars pay for both signs? If your answer is no, congratulations — you've just grasped the central issue on your ballot Tuesday, and you did it faster than three federal circuit courts.
The Founding Bargain Nobody Should Be Negotiating in 2026
Public schools didn't just happen to America. They were a deliberate, radical, democratic bet — the idea that a republic survives only if it educates everybody's children, not just the children of people who agree with each other. Horace Mann didn't build the common school so that two centuries later we could Venmo the proceeds to institutions that sort kindergartners by their parents' marriage certificates.
For generations, public schools built engineers who went to the moon, soldiers who stormed Normandy, nurses who staffed pandemic wards, and — yes — the very legislators now voting to defund them. The return on that investment is this country. The proposal on the table in Tuesday's races is to quietly liquidate it, one voucher at a time, while calling it "freedom."
That's not freedom. That's a fire sale.
The Legal Circus Coming to a Supreme Court Near You — Tuesday, Actually
Here is a remarkable coincidence of timing that should concentrate every voter's mind: oral arguments in St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy are scheduled for November 3, 2026 — the same day you vote. While you're standing in line at your polling place, nine justices will be asking whether Colorado must write checks to preschools that turn away the children of same-sex parents.
The legal architecture is genuinely complex, so let's be honest about it:
Trinity Lutheran (2017), Espinoza (2020), and Carson (2022) form a trilogy in which the Supreme Court progressively ruled that states cannot exclude religious schools from public benefit programs simply because they are religious. Fair enough — the Constitution does not permit naked anti-religious discrimination in public funding.
But here is what those cases did not decide: whether a state must fund a religious school that refuses to comply with the same neutral, nondiscrimination rules every other participating provider must follow. That is the live question. That is what Tuesday's candidates will either protect or surrender.
The Tenth Circuit said Colorado's rules are fine — they apply equally to Catholic preschools and secular preschools alike. The school isn't being excluded for being Catholic. It's being asked to serve the public if it wants public money. That distinction is not theological hairsplitting. It is the entire ballgame.
The Culture War Straw Men, Ranked by Absurdity
Let's name the straw men being deployed in races across the country this cycle, because they deserve to be introduced properly before we vote them out:
Straw Man #1: "They're coming for religious schools." Nobody is shutting down St. Mary's. The school may teach whatever theology it chooses, hire whomever it wishes on its own dime, and operate according to its own doctrine — entirely unmolested by the state. The only question is whether the taxpayer must subsidize that operation. Your right to practice your religion has never included a right to my wallet.
Straw Man #2: "Parents deserve choice." Absolutely. And the parent of a child with a disability deserves a school that won't turn her away. The parent working two jobs deserves a neighborhood public school that is fully staffed and funded. "Choice" that is architecturally designed to benefit some families while stripping resources from the schools that serve everyone else is not choice — it is a subsidy with a velvet rope.
Straw Man #3: "Public schools are failing." Some are — because they have been systematically starved of funding, saddled with unfunded mandates, and used as political punching bags for thirty years. The solution to a leaky roof is not to burn the house down and hand the insurance money to your neighbor's private clubhouse.
Straw Man #4: "This is about religious liberty." The ministerial exception and church autonomy doctrine are real constitutional protections, and they are important. They protect a church's right to choose its own clergy. They do not protect a church's right to collect a government check while operating a publicly funded program under rules that apply to no one else. The First Amendment is a shield, not a subsidy application.
Follow the Money — It Leads Somewhere Uncomfortable
Across the country, voucher and Education Savings Account expansions are being sold as modest, targeted relief for struggling families. Then the eligibility expands. Then the spending cap disappears. Then universal programs emerge with no income limits, no academic accountability requirements, no obligation to serve students with disabilities, and no requirement to open the books to the public that is writing the checks.
Meanwhile, the public school down the street — the one that must take every child, including the expensive ones, the complicated ones, the ones nobody else wants — watches its per-pupil funding erode with every dollar that follows a family to a private provider.
This is not a theoretical concern. It is the documented experience of Arizona, where the universal ESA program blew past its cost projections so dramatically that the legislature had to scramble for a spending cap after the fact. It is the experience of states where rural public schools, already operating on margins that would make a nonprofit blush, face the prospect of losing the enrollment — and the funding — that keeps them alive.
When a rural public school closes, the town often follows. That is not a culture war talking point. That is a school board budget meeting.
What Tuesday Actually Asks of You
The candidates on your ballot — for governor, state legislature, and especially school board — are being asked a series of questions they will answer with their votes for the next two to four years:
| The Question | The Answer That Protects Public Education |
|---|---|
| Should vouchers require the same accountability as public schools? | Yes — financial audits, open enrollment, disability services, public reporting |
| Can states attach nondiscrimination conditions to public preschool funds? | Yes — neutral rules that apply to everyone are not anti-religious persecution |
| Should tax cuts that reduce school revenue require replacement funding? | Yes — a tax cut is not a school-funding plan |
| Should public funds flow to schools that exclude protected classes of children? | No — public money carries public obligations |
| Should school board governance be a front in the national culture war? | No — it should be about reading scores, safe buildings, and qualified teachers |
The candidates who refuse to engage in the culture war theater are not being naive. They are being serious — about children, about budgets, about the constitutional architecture that has held this republic together since before any of us were born.
A Final Word About What We're Actually Defending
Public schools are imperfect. They are bureaucratic, underfunded, occasionally maddening, and staffed by human beings who are doing one of the hardest jobs in America for salaries that would embarrass a mid-level marketing coordinator. They are also the single institution in American life that is legally obligated to educate every child who walks through the door — the child with autism, the child experiencing homelessness, the child who just arrived from another country and speaks no English, the child whose parents are in prison, the child nobody else will take.
That obligation is not a bug. It is the entire point.
The culture warriors on Tuesday's ballot are not offering you a better education system. They are offering you an exit from the shared obligation that makes democratic society possible — and handing you a coupon to spend at an institution that reserves the right to decide your family doesn't qualify.
Vote for the candidates who understand that public money is a public trust. Vote for full funding for fully public schools. Vote for the candidates who are bored by the culture war because they are too busy trying to make sure every child in their district can read.
The Supreme Court will do what it does on Tuesday. You get to do something more important.
Vote like the schools are on the ballot. Because they are.
The author writes about education policy, constitutional law, and the occasionally heroic absurdity of American democracy.
Further Reading: Schools, Vouchers & the Culture War Ballot
⚖️ The Supreme Court Case at the Center of It All
1. St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy — SCOTUSblog Case Page The definitive tracking page for the case, including briefs, lower court opinions, and argument previews. 🔗 https://www.scotusblog.com/cases/st-mary-catholic-parish-v-roy/
2. St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy — Oyez.org Plain-language case summary, oral argument audio (post-November 3), and full docket details. 🔗 https://www.oyez.org/cases/2026/25-581
3. Official Supreme Court Docket — No. 25-581 The Court's own docket page with all filed documents, briefs, and scheduling orders. 🔗 https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/25-581.html
📜 Key Supreme Court Precedents: The Legal Trilogy
4. Carson v. Makin (2022) — MTSU First Amendment Encyclopedia Clear, accessible summary of the ruling that Maine could not exclude religious schools from tuition assistance programs. 🔗 https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/post/supreme-court-rules-religious-schools-can-get-maine-tuition-aid/
5. Carson v. Makin — Full Text & Analysis, UMKC Law The full constitutional analysis of the ruling, including the majority, concurring, and dissenting opinions. 🔗 https://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/CarsonvMakin.html
6. Carson v. Makin & State-Subsidized Discrimination — IDRA Critical policy analysis of how Carson opened the door to publicly subsidized discrimination in private religious schools. 🔗 https://www.idra.org/resource-center/supreme-court-allows-use-of-public-funds-for-religious-instruction-giving-license-to-state-subsidized-discrimination/
🗳️ 2026 Midterm Education Battlegrounds
7. Education Week — 2026 Election Guide to Education Races The most comprehensive tracker of gubernatorial, legislative, and school board races with education platforms. 🔗 https://www.edweek.org
8. The Texas Tribune — Texas Governor's Race & Public Schools Reporting on the Abbott vs. Hinojosa race and the battle over Texas vouchers and public school funding. 🔗 https://www.texastribune.org
9. Colorado Newsline — Colorado Governor's Race & Proposition NN Coverage of the Polis-era school choice decisions and the revenue retention ballot measure. 🔗 https://coloradonewsline.com
🏛️ Constitutional Framework: Free Exercise vs. Equal Protection
10. Becket Fund for Religious Liberty — Case Page The legal team representing the Catholic challengers; presents the strongest arguments for religious exemptions from nondiscrimination rules. 🔗 https://www.becketlaw.org
11. ACLU — Religious Exemptions & LGBTQ+ Rights in Education The civil liberties perspective on why public funding cannot constitutionally flow to discriminatory institutions. 🔗 https://www.aclu.org
12. Americans United for Separation of Church and State Advocacy and legal analysis on the church-state dimensions of school voucher programs. 🔗 https://www.au.org
13. Religious Freedom Institute — St. Mary Case Analysis The religious liberty perspective on the Tenth Circuit's ruling and what's at stake before the Supreme Court. 🔗 https://religiousfreedominstitute.org/st-mary-catholic-parish-v-roy-2/
💰 School Funding, Vouchers & Accountability
14. Education Week — School Funding Ballot Measures, October 2026 Analysis of 18 ballot questions in 12 states affecting K–12 education revenue, tax caps, and spending mandates. 🔗 https://www.edweek.org
15. National Education Association (NEA) — Voucher Research Hub Data and research on the fiscal impact of voucher and ESA programs on public school budgets. 🔗 https://www.nea.org
16. Network for Public Education — Voucher Accountability Reports Investigative reporting on private schools receiving public funds with little to no accountability. 🔗 https://networkforpubliceducation.org
17. America First Policy Institute — St. Mary Amicus Brief The pro-voucher, pro-religious-exemption policy argument submitted to the Supreme Court. 🔗 https://americafirstpolicy.com/issues/afpi-urges-supreme-court-to-protect-religious-liberty-in-st-mary-catholic-parish-v-roy/
🌐 Broader Context: LGBTQ+ Rights & Public Education
18. Bostock v. Clayton County (2020) — Oyez.org The landmark ruling holding that Title VII's prohibition on sex discrimination includes sexual orientation and gender identity — foundational to the Equal Protection arguments in school funding cases. 🔗 https://www.oyez.org/cases/2019/17-1618
19. Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) — Oyez.org The marriage equality ruling whose protections are directly implicated when same-sex parents' children are excluded from publicly funded schools. 🔗 https://www.oyez.org/cases/2014/14-556
20. GLSEN — School Climate Survey & Policy Research Annual data on LGBTQ+ students' experiences in schools, including the impact of discriminatory admissions policies. 🔗 https://www.glsen.org
🗂️ Quick Reference Summary
| Category | Best Starting Point |
|---|---|
| The Supreme Court case | SCOTUSblog + Oyez |
| Legal precedents | UMKC Law (Carson) |
| 2026 ballot races | Education Week |
| Religious liberty argument | Becket Fund |
| Civil rights / LGBTQ+ argument | ACLU + GLSEN |
| Voucher fiscal impact | NEA + Network for Public Ed |
Oral arguments in St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy begin Tuesday, November 3 — the same morning polls open. Read up tonight, vote tomorrow, and watch the Court in the afternoon. Democracy is nothing if not efficient.
